Selina Gray

Selina Gray, daughter of Leonard and Sallie Norris, was a second-generation Arlington slave who served for years as Mrs. Robert E. Lee’s personal maid and by 1861 had become head housekeeper at Arlington. When Mrs. Lee left in mid-May 1861, she entrusted Selina Gray with the household keys and with the care of the Washington family heirlooms kept there, including treasures associated with Martha Custis Washington and President George Washington. After the U.S. Army took control of Arlington on May 24, 1861, officers occupied the house and looting began. When Selina found that some of the treasures had been stolen, she confronted the soldiers, ordered them never to touch any of Miss Mary’s things, and alerted General Irvin McDowell to the importance of the heirlooms. The remaining pieces were then sent to the Patent Office for safekeeping, and through her efforts many of the Washington pieces were preserved. The Grays received their freedom in 1862 under the 1857 will of George Washington Park Custis, Mrs. Lee’s father, and later left Arlington for nearby Green Valley, though Gray descendants still live in Arlington County, Virginia. During the Civil War, the Gray family lived in the south slave quarters, where Thorton and Selina Norris Gray lived with their eight children, and most of the family worked as house slaves. Years later, in the 1920s, Emma and Sarah Gray returned to Arlington House to help the War Department restore the property by providing details about the slave quarters and main house and by making available original furnishings their mother had received from Mrs. Lee.

Arlington, Virginia · United States