The Gray Family

Selena Gray, born into slavery in December 1823 to Leonard and Sallie Norris, learned to read and write while serving as Mary Lee’s personal maid. In the same parlor where the Lees were married, Selena married Thornton Gray, an enslaved stable hand. Together they raised eight children—Emma, Annice, Florence, Sarah, Ada, Selena, John, and Harry—in one cramped space in the south slave quarters. After the Lees left Arlington, the Gray family cut through the walls to occupy the entire building until the U.S. government forced them from their home. Years later, after the family settled on a few acres in Alexandria, Selena wrote to Mary Lee. Thornton Gray tended the horses and carriages, and after the Civil War he lost a petition to Congress for some of the plantation land at Arlington.

Arlington, Virginia · United States