Extra Credit Questions

[BettyO]

I have never been able to prove this story, and the folks at Stratford Hall (Lee's birthplace in Virginia) deny it. However, my grandmother visited Stratford Hall around the turn of the 20th century. She swore that she was told by staff there that Lee's mother suffered from epilepsy and that severe attacks would leave her in a catatonic state. After one such seizure, she was declared dead and buried in the family cemetery near the mansion.

A slave passing by late at night heard sounds in the cemetery and ran to get the family. Mrs. Lee was dug up and rescued from her coffin. She continued to live and produce children, one of whom was Robert E. Lee.

I can see where staff at the museum would deny such a thing, but I have often wondered if the episode didn't make it into someone's journal, diary, or letters. My grandmother had only a sixth grade education, but she adored history and I don't think she would have made this story up on her own -- not to say that the guide she heard it from didn't make it up!

I was on the staff at Shirley Plantation in James City County for years. The late Mr. Hill Carter - descendant of the original owners (Robert "King Carter - wealthiest man in the Colonies during the 1700s) and patriarch of the Carter family who still own Shirley to this very day, told me this same story - and stated that it occurred at Shirley Plantation, after she left husband Light Horse Harry Lee. It was claimed to be true. Mrs. Lee was a Carter before her marriage to Lee -