Selina Gray

Selina Norris lived at Arlington House and served as the personal maid and later head housekeeper for Mary Custis Lee. She was the second generation of her family enslaved by the Lee family, and her children were also enslaved until emancipation at the end of the Civil War. Although marriages between enslaved people were not legally recognized, Mary Custis Lee organized Selina Norris's wedding to the free man Thornton Gray in the same room where she had married Robert E. Lee. Thornton Gray remained at Arlington House as a slave, possibly to stay near his wife and their eight children. In May 1861, when Mary Custis Lee fled the property, she left behind her household staff, including Selina Gray and her family, and entrusted Gray with the keys to Arlington House so she could protect Lee-Washington family heirlooms inherited from George Washington Parke Custis. After months of trying to hide the objects and prevent Union soldiers from taking trophies, Gray asked General McDowell to safeguard the collection. He then secured the remaining Washington artifacts and moved them to the U.S. Patent Office. The survival of family heirlooms that had belonged to Martha Custis Washington and President George Washington is attributed to Selina Gray's courageous actions. After emancipation, Thornton and Selina Gray bought a 10-acre property in present-day Green Valley in 1867, lived there for the rest of their lives, helped found the Green Valley neighborhood, and left a legacy their descendants continue in Arlington.

Arlington, Virginia · United States