number of books on the arts and history, among them being the birth of virginia's aristocracy and thomas jefferson's enlightenment. after his presentation, there will be a q&a and mr. thompson will be happy to sign copies of his book. please take the opportunity to explore our library and museum with its new exhibition, remembering the american to 1890.n, 1776 period rooms31 detecting life in early america. all these resources are free and open to the public. without further ado, please welcome jim thompson. [applause] jim: thank you, mark, for the fine introduction, and thank you all for coming today. i appreciate you joining me and learning with me about billy lee. i'm going to begin with a couple brief comments about my background and my approach, my view of the past, and how i research. then i'm going to talk about the book. i'm only going to focus on a couple aspects. i'm going to focus on -- the first point is, how was george washington related to billy lee? i believe they had a family bond. second, what did billy lee look like? i will give a little lead-in to that, and then the slides to support my comments. first, i'm a philosopher. i have degrees in philosophy, undergraduate and graduate, from the university of virginia. during my graduate tenure, i lived on the farm of thomas jefferson's daughter, margaret -- martha jefferson randolph. i was wondering through the hills of jefferson country and i took an interest in history. i didn't study much history in college. philosophy is the science of knowledge, in one sense, and students of philosophy learn how to analyze ideas, how to analyze concepts, what they entail. they learn to evaluate propositions, and what inferences can be made, and what entailment's they have. and they learn to investigate arguments and create valid arguments from premises to conclusions. this is my lens for looking at history. i'm interested in the ideas, the history of ideas. this book is an example of a history of an idea. the key factor -- i'm going to introduce the story by saying, about six months before george washington died, he changed his will. he acknowledged william lee, gave him his freedom, recognized his service, his loyal service during the war, provided him with a life pension, and a place to live, which is a very unusual -- the greatest man on the world would have this attachment to an insignificant member of his household characterized as a slave. this was my focal point. what was the nature of the bond that tied george washington to billy lee? as mark pointed out, the relationship began on 15 october, 1767, when george washington went to kevin point -- cabin point in westmoreland county, about 60 miles south of mount vernon, and he signed a note with a woman named mary smith ball lee, and in this note, he purchased two mulatto individuals, billy lee and his brother frank. he calls them mulatto billy and ditto frank. he purchased two slave boys. this document has been lost. we can't actually refer to it. in 1990, it was sold by a document vendor, and he made a note about it that's available. you can see it in the washington papers at the university of virginia. i've referred to that as the source. what isn't commonly known is that when george washington made this transaction, he was making a transaction with his cousin. in my book, i explain that everybody in this neck of the woods, cabin point is on the potomac river, on a peninsula between the nominal i creek and the lower creek. everybody in that neck of the woods was related to george washington. in fact, george washington's brother, john augustine washington, was the neighbor of colonel john lee and mary smith ball lee. when they made this transaction, they were making a transaction between friends. it wasn't some serendipitous event. i'd like to point out that nothing in my story is a serendipitous event. very little in the relationship between george washington and his mulatto man was a fortuitous accident. i spent a lot of time creating the network of societies, the family relationships, the nature of the social circles, the connections -- it's very tightly wound. these people were guided by invisible but powerful protocols that determined what their activities were. in that regard, i think it's fair to say that what washington did, and what the fair faxes did, they were bound to do. they saw themselves that way. tracing back -- i'm not going to try to go through the whole line, but tracing back through all of this information that i assembled, there's a lot of snippets of information that mention billy lee, but there's no comprehensive order to it. it's a matter of connecting the dots. when i connected the dots, i determined that there was 1 -- the source of the connection between george washington and billy lee, only one force could have been strong enough to tie these two men together through their 32-year relationship. that one force, i believe, was a vow that george washington made to his half-brother, lawrence. on his deathbed, i believe that lawrence washington revealed to george that he was involved in a deceit, in a way. he had taken charge of his best friend's two boys, billy lee and frank lee, i think, were the children of george william fairfax and sally kerry fairfax. i explain in the book that circumstances made it awkward for them to have these children, considered black by the nature of things, not so much within the fairfax family, but within the fairfaxes were building an empire in the western part of virginia and they were businessmen and they had relationships with people. they refer to them as buckskin's, but they were clannish, dangerous, suspicious of strangers, and nobody knew what would happen if the agent of fairfax had a black family. it wasn't clear. it was a problem. they didn't want to find out. george william was an heir, as you probably know, the third in line to inherit the title of lord thomas fairfax. he was the third in line to inherit lord thomas' english estates. and he was the third in line to inherit a 5.3 million acre proprietary. there was a lot on the line. this is the energizing force behind all the activities. george washington made this commitment to his brother, who he idolized, and the commitment lay dormant for 15 years, until his cousin, mary smith ball lee's husband died. at that point, the boys -- the future of the boys was uncertain. washington had been monitoring this for the whole time, since his brother's death, and his sister-in-law took the boys with her to westmoreland county. now, when the arrangement could no longer be sustained, he stepped forward. i think he made a sham transaction with his cousin and his brother jack. note, so ited tehe was a family activity. and he brought the boys back to mount vernon, where he kept them in his household in privileged positions for 30 some years. what i want to do is trace through the genealogy of washington and show -- george was, -- his half-brother lawrence was 14 years older than george. you all may know that augustine washington had attended school in england. he had gone to the applebee grammar school in county westmoreland england, which is very close to yorkshire. in his school days, he would have connected with a circle of people who were known to the fairfaxes, because they were from yorkshire. when lawrence was about nine or 10, his father took him to the same school, and lawrence spent several years integrating himself into this network of englishmen who had connections with the virginia. george, being 14 years younger, didn't have the same experience. he ended up attending a couple grammar schools as i explained in the book in westmoreland county and fredericksburg. this is the genealogy -- you can see the line. if you go from the bottom, up, lawrence's father was augustine. augustine's father was lawrence again. and lawrence was the son of john the immigrant. john the immigrant arrived in virginia. it a very colorful story i explain in the book. i think he came first in the early 1750's, but he moved to virginia in about 1757. his father was lawrence washington of soul grave pearly. you can go to england now, in northampton, and go to the manor house where george washington's forebears lived. lawrence washington had three brothers, or two brothers. not going to go into the third brother. one of them was william packington.f william was born in 1589 and died in 1643. it's kind of interesting. although washington has been the subject of decades of genealogical research, there are still some questions about all of his english family lines. the most interesting and critical is, he's referred to, this man here, henry washington of south cave, is referred to as washington's uncle. there's no genealogy that shows what the relationship was, but the man that i think was the first to say this was sparks -- what's his name -- the first biographer of washington. he identified -- what? no, i'll think of it. i'm sorry to forget, but there's so many names. anyway, henry washington of south cave was probably a collateral line to the washington's of northampton. i speculate, though there's no proof of this, that william, who had a son, henry, and that's documented, and henry was born in 1615 and died in 1664, he may have had a son. i call him henry two, question mark. might have been the father of henry of south cave, who was born in 1665 and died in 1717. henry of south cave is interesting. he ends up marrying the sister of the wife of henry fairfax of tools to an. so henry of south cave, henry washington of south cave, is the brother-in-law of henry fairfax of toolston. i show you hear that henry of toolston's son, william fairfax, would have been in south cave and yorkshire while lawrence -- or john the immigrant, was living in that area. they probably would have known each other. what the direct connection is hasn't yet been determined, but this is the link between the families. hee fairfaxe's and teh washington's. i go into a little more detail here. henry washington of south cave married a woman named eleanor harrison of south cave in 1689 and eleanor was the sister of ann harrison, who married henry fairfax in 1684, and they were living together in yorkshire during the childhood of william bellviour. william is a colorful story. there are three primary sources of information about william. one of them was by a man named reverend burnaby, a professional traveler in the mid-1700s and knew his lordship, and may have met william. another man was writing in the mid-1800s, edward neil. and the third was sally fairfax's probably brother, descendent of her brother, named wilson miles carey, who wrote a biography of sally. all three of these men refer to the same information and they all are wrong in several key points. it's not that difficult to determine where the errors are, but nobody bothered to do it until now. i've traced through the life story of william of belvoir. he was a fortune hunting wayfarer. he was the second son of a second son. he had a famous family name and his brother had wonderful estates in yorkshire. but william inherited only his name and his family connections. in 1734, his cousin encouraged him to come to virginia. he came to virginia, settled outside of fredericksburg, and while he lived there, who should move in a few miles down the road but augustine washington, and these two men had business connections. it wouldn't have taken long for them to discover they had these -- they were family. can you imagine coming to virginia, living in the wilds of this vast proprietary owned by lord thomas and discovering you are living next to one of your kin? shortly after they arrived, the washingtons arrived on river farm, lawrence returns from school and is introduced to the fairfaxes. you can see how this network of relationships begins to grow. when lawrence had brought his third wife with him from salem, massachusetts, and his second wife, which is the most interesting to our story was a woman that he had married while he was an official in the government of the bahamas. he was a wayfarer. he ended up in the bahamas and he became -- at one point, he was the deputy governor of the bahamas. sounds very grand, but when you look at it, it was nothing but debris. the bahamas were an amazingly neglected place. there was virtually no trade, no wealth, which is one of the reasons william left. but while he was there, he married and he had 3, 4 children by this first wife, or by this second wife. this was sally walker fairfax. sally walker is interesting today because she was either a slave or a daughter of a slave. so she would have been black by the standards of the day. it hadn't defected him. they lived a fine life in the bahamas. they went to massachusetts and moved right up into the society in the port of salem. when he came to virginia, he was connected to his lordship and he was at the top of the social ladder. but his children were mulatto by definition. so george william, who is the oldest child of william fairfax and sally walker fairfax, was born in the bahamas and came to virginia in 1734. shortly after that -- i'm sorry, before william fairfax came to virginia, he sent george william to england to be schooled by his family, who was living in yorkshire. so he's moving back into the english family network. i think that what happened was, he stayed in yorkshire, attending the -- let's see, the beverly school outside of beverly, yorkshire. when he finished his grammar school, i believe that lord thomas fairfax brought him to leeds castle and made him his protege, his secretary. he ends up meeting all the lords of london. he was a popular, attractive, intelligent, cultured person. lord fairfax finally sends him to virginia to become the assistant of his cousin, william, george williams' father. and george william moves right to the top of the social pyramid of virginia. because he's at the top and he's third in line after his -- lord thomas' brother, robert, he's fourth in line after lord thomas' brother, and after his father, william, george william is fourth in line at that point to inherit the title, the english estates, and the 5.3 million acre proprietary. there's a bell in southern virginia, who is the most scintillating young woman in the colony at that time, and her name is sally kerry fairfax. i'll show you a picture of her in a moment. george william marries sally and i think it is a fascinating image. she thinks she's marrying the next lord of fairfax, and going to be inheriting 5 million -- i shouldn't say she thought, i think her father thought that. her problem -- her father probably was keeping tabs. george william, he was the right stuff. shortly after he arrives, they are married. i leave that part of the story for a moment. going back now to lawrence, lawrence returns from england, he gets -- amazingly, he's given a commission by the governor and he becomes a captain in one of the regiments going on this police action going on down under admiral london and went worth, to fix the problem in the west indies. it turns out to be a disaster. 90% of the force dies of disease. washington, vernon, and wentworth survived. this is discussed in some detail by washington irving, who interestingly wrote one of the early biographies of george washington. he talks about the serendipitous moment when lawrence returns and his bags are packed, he's on his way to go to england to join the military, when lo and behold, there's the love of his life standing over there, and they get married, and live happily ever after for a few years. that is probably not what happened. it is probable that augustine washington was having a bowl of punch with william fairfax one evening, they knew they were kin, they understood the importance of connecting family mergers through marriage, and they arranged the marriage of lawrence with fairfax's oldest daughter, ann. lawrence comes back, his bags are packed, he's ready to go to england and join the military -- this is the woman you are marrying and this is how it's going to work, and they married. they had several children. lawrence knew, he had plenty of opportunity to commune with his father, he knew what the heritage of the lawrence family was. he knew the relationships. he probably knew who henry of south cave was. he might have shared some of this with george in later years, but he died. lawrence died in 1752, while george was still getting his bearings. lawrence and george's father died in 1743, before he transferred any of this knowledge to george. so george never really knew what his relationship to the fairfax family was. but lawrence knew and there he is on his deathbed, tuberculosis or one of the diseases he got on his expedition to the west indies, his health deteriorates. the fairfaxes decide they can't risk keeping their mulatto children under their roof at belvoir. not that the family cares about it, but the empire is at stake. that is my theory. sally cary and george william fairfax, i think had three children. the first was a daughter. she's only mentioned once in history. i think it's a significant comment. where she's mentioned, some of you have probably done this, you can go down to fort belvoir and you can go down to the site of belvoir manor, and the foundations of the house are still there, the sheds, and the grave site. if you have a chance, i encourage you to do it. it is a very moving experienec. experience. the first time i went there, i was alone. i got the sense that somebody was watching me. i get up and i get the sense somebody's watching me. when i came back down from the grave site, over in a thicket was a dear. the deer was there the whole time. anyway, it's a very interesting place to go. beside the foundation of the house is a sign. it says, one of the things that william fairfax included in his will -- he died in august of 1757 -- he willed in his will, he gave one of his slaves and her offspring, who was sally cary fairfax's goddaughter to sally fairfax. the way the goddaughter thing works is the parent decides to the godparents are, not the godparent. they don't decide to be a godparents. this child i think was sally, cary and george fairfax's first child and they kept the first child with them for their lives. if you go to the cemetery where they are buried in england their graves are there. there's probably a marker there for somebody who is an attendant. i called her miss fairfax. it was one thing to keep the daughter in the household. it was another thing to keep the sons. lawrence was already in. fairfax's man. he was going to be their agent. everything was moving in that direction. until lawrence died. before his death, he had consulted with and fairfax washington and became close to george william and sally cary fairfax. i think they agreed to take the boys to mount vernon. back in those days you can see across from the veranda of mount vernon to belvoir. having the boys said washington's was no hardship. the washington's weren't involved in the land business. the two boys fit right in. everything was fine until lawrence succumbed at which point he passed to the duty on to george. this brings me down to the end of my genealogy. george william fairfax and sally cary fairfax have three children. these children -- miss fairfax remains with george she wasn't going to send her goddaughter out into some unsafe place. she was there. when lawrence dies billy is probably born around 1750. frank is probably born a year or two later. they are living of mount vernon until mount he dies a few months later. ann fairfax marries colonel george lee and moves to westmoreland county. she is part of the washington family network. some years later, george washington steps forward but everybody who was in this network of this family was aware that the lee boys were special. they probably thought they were lawrence's children. the only people who would know the difference. lord thomas fairfax might have known. but i will think anybody else knew who they were. summarizing the genealogical relationship of george washington to billy lee goes collaterally down through lawrence to south cave and then through the marriage of henry washington down to william and george william to billy. then it goes collaterally between williams' daughter ann and george's half-brother lawrence. it is entirely plausible but it can't be proved. theorywhy i describe my as interpretation. i will leave off here and i will go to the next part of my story and wrap up with this and then take some questions. there is a painting that was done of billy lee. i would like to preface my comments about this by saying that some things that seem plausible aren't supported by any tangible evidence. some things that seem implausible are supported by all kinds of powerful circumstantial evidence. this is a picture i presented because it was painted by howard pyle, a wilmington illustrator. a wonderful image of washington, the retreat of the remnant of washington's army after they evacuated fort lee. just over the hill is cornwallis. uncertain.e is very i like this picture because you can see in the delaware art museum and you can put your face an inch from these characters. billy lee -- the picture is only this big. but he has an expression on his face. this guy was a master storyteller. i put that in tehe background. this picture here, let me say that there were four artists who knew and painted george washington who also knew billy lee. one of them was this artist who is john trumbull. this picture is in the metropolitan museum and it has to be one of the premier museums in the world. the curators suggest this is billy lee. the history of the picture suggests that that is not billy lee. this picture was painted in 1780 while john trumbull was under indictment and subject to being hung as a spy. he painted the picture, there was another american artist who and he wasist gilbert stuart. both of these men are painting pictures in the studio of nathaniel west who was this oil painter to the king. gilbert stuart had the same problem the trumbull had. he was bankrupt and no money. he was talking with gilbert stuart. he went to stuart said if you want to make some money paint a picture of george washington. though he knows what he looks like here. so he paints this picture. in the background, this here is west point just after john andre has been captured and hung. it was a very tense. in england. that is why trumbull is under investigation. so he paints this glorified image of the leader of the american revolution. with this symbolic information or prop in the background. on the other side, he needed something else that way s a symbolic prop, so he creates this awestruck groom to them this exceptional man. trumbull had lived in the house in cambridge where washington kept his headquarters. billy lee lived in the house. they probably would've seen each other. washington took billy lee everywhere that he rode a horse. billy held his horse. when he wasn't combing his hair. trumbull didn't know that but he paints this picture and i think he got the idea for the picture from this famous lithograph engraving that was done a year before trumbull painted his picture. it was done for lafayette. lafayette purchased two pictures of george washington while he was at valley forge. he took these pictures over. there was a reform movement taking place in france. lafayette went there to smooth over some problems that were cropping up in the relationship between the french and the americans supporting the war effort. this is a propaganda piece. theington is holdong thing declaration of independence. the groom is looking out and the message to me is we are ready to go. we are ready to take the field. let's get going and create a free nation. it says here he was the portrait painter who painted the battle for his highness the prince of conde. the reigning prince was this man here. he might not have been the reigning prince, but he was a relative. it is believed to be joseph to orleans, the duke of orleans. the poor man ended up losing his head in 1792. here's a painting that was done by joshua reynolds and it is the same thing. we have here the groom holding the horse. he had been in the cavalry. he would have seen these kinds of things, probably knew the duke, so they are incorporating these props into the story. here is the picture of i think billy lee and, frank lee's parents. the picture is at leeds castle. they were kind enough to make this available to me. you cannot really tell what they look like. these of the people at the top of the social ladder. this pyramid of virginia. also in england later. during washington's lifetime. this is the painting of george washington's mulatto man. the reason i think this, this is an example where people will say, this is what he was supposed to look like. well this picture was painted by , charles wilson peel. in 1779. i found an interesting article of the it was the editor princeton magazine from 1890, and he knew peel's son. they talked to him. if you go to princeton, i like going to princeton, i have family collections -- family connections in princeton. you can go into the museum and the big picture right in the center of the main gallery is one of peel's variations on this portrait. the last part of the battle of princeton all the british had retreated to nassau hall and they were hiding. they are shooting up the windows. the americans wield the cannons up and start blasting the building. it doesn't have any effect on the building until one cannonball goes through the door. you can go through the door and the foyer and the hallway at the library, which is now the faculty senate, and on the far wall is a picture of george the third and the cannonball hit george the third and the british surrendered. the building was a wreck. after the war or sometime after the battle, washington gave the princeton university $200 to repair the building. they did not repair the building, they commissioned charles wilson peel to paint a portrait. this portrait. it has a picture of poor general mercer who was killed at the battle. the account in the princeton magazine explained that this was actually james peel. the artist's brother. he was the fallen hero. the attendants were his sons. we know what they look like, and they don't look like this. peel had been at the battle of princeton. he must've been in the army. he couldn't get across that night to attack at dawn on the hessians at trenton. but he had been able to get across any marched up with cadwalader. he formed against the british -- you can go up there and stand on the little bridge. there is a painting showing the chaos of the battle. it is a famous moment, some of you probably know this, where the pennsylvanians have never been in the battle before. they are very enthusiastic. now they are looking at a screaming horde of bayonet wielding british regulars charging at breakneck pace. they are trying to decide is this a time to time to go home. while they are wavering, washington appears out of the thicket and he writes right r -- rides right through the line and the british could have been about this far from that wall. washington writes out to about where the camera is remade a little farther and he turns his horse and he commands his men to fire. they don't do so they fire. the battlefield is covered with smoke. certain men pulled their hats down over their faces because they couldn't bear to see their gallant commander died. washington is still on his horse and the british are retreating. the americans go charging after them. he was part of that battle. he fired a shot in anger. a couple years later when washington comes to philadelphia in order to do some business with the congress, one of the committees of philadelphia commissioned peel to paint his portrait. washington knows peel. they spent a lot of time together at valley forge. he goes, ok, sure, i will post for you. he was with billy lee. peel knew billy lee. he had probably seen him on his way to and from the battle. of timepent a good deal with him and headquarters of valley forge. he is painting the portrait. he only paints from life. the question is, i have got to find a guy to be the groom. who is he going to get? i think he gets billy lee to be the groom. the proof of this, if you can see that had, there are accounts of billy lee wearing his cocked hat through his life. and this is the hat. if you get up close and look at and hehas been red trim has this hat through his life. while it is very unlikely that trumbull painted a picture of billy lee, it is likely that this is a picture of billy lee. it turned out to be quite a long book because i tried to build up all these networks of relationships that explain how we look back now and history and we think that these people were just pursuing their happiness like independent particles. not controlled by any other force but there win. when you look at the nature of the relationships in the structure of society. how people were dependent upon each other. there was quite a bit of protocols that were extremely important. washington is famous for always following his protocols. honoring his relationships and his vow to his brother. thank you very much. [applause] if anybody has questions, i would be happy to answer them. >> washington ended up having a falling out with billy lee. >> that is what makes the story so much more fascinating. i go into some detail about the correspondence between them. by 1790, when the falling out occurred, washington had a new confidant, tobias lear. lear did not have a close bond with billy lee, but he was writing to clement billingham. trying to encourage washington to send to billy home. i explain it in some detail, but i think the final moment came , it was a break, and what happened with billy was in new york and new york had a very active abolitionist movement. it was being led by the leaders of the patriotic movement, john jay, alexander hamilton, aron burr. they were leading this movement for abolition. on every street he was very unpopular. washington was a national figure he was very sensitive about , this. billy is there and he is working in a household that has freemen, free mulattos, free blacks. all mingled together. they are in this free society. after spending time there, billy lee was in new york for 13 months. at some i think he goes to point, washington and is listening to these street demonstrations and i think he went to washington and said who am i? why am i a slave? washington had never been approached by such a brazen question. the protocol -- washington -- he was a human being who lived behind the most remarkable system of rules that govern his behavior. i talk about that in some detail. this was violating the protocol. he was dumbfounded. he didn't know what to do. he couldn't tell billy. it conjured up all kinds of unpleasant memories for him, and it raised the risk that billy might mention it to someone else. it would collapse the whole house of cards. the only person he confides in is tobias lear. lear was a very shady guy as it turns out and he says you can't , have this man around. you have got to send him home. washington sent them home. years, the last 10 years of washington's life billy was a cobbler at mount , vernon and there is no indication -- washington never mentioned it except for twice. he mentioned them in a letter to tobias lear and he was explaining how difficult it was to find a new butler. he was not talking about billy lee he was talking about william osborne, who had died. he had been billy's replacement. he mentions him and says, when a shame idleness ruined billy. ,that was one time. the other time even though we , hadn't had any communication with billy lee he writes him , into his will and makes some -- makes him famous. there is a very thorough account of washington's last days. it is kept by tobias lear. even the washington has recognized billy for his faithful service and during the war, at his deathbed he didn't , invite billy to come see him. he didn't give him a farewell blessing or anything like that. billy is alone down the lane in the cobbler's shop. the man beside his bed is frank lee. that is kind of not -- we are not familiar with that. thank you for the question. anybody else have a question? thank you very much for coming. i appreciate it. it has been a pleasure. [applause] books in the back if anybody would like a copy. i could sign one for you. americane watching history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter @cspanhistory for our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. >> the weekend prior to the caucuses, they will be a frenzy of activity across iowa. onre are so many candidates the republican side. three viable candidates on the democratic side and they will have each of them today. we will look for those events that really give you a sense of what it is like the campaign for the caucuses. keep in mind, the key is organization. if you need to make sure those people who support you get to the caucuses, so it will be interesting to see other candidates try to close the deal, saw the message and convince those people who might still be on the fence to go for candidate a candidate b. you will see wall-to-wall coverage on c-span as the candidates make their final pitches. >> live coverage of the presidential candidates in iowa this weekend. on american history tv, houston where the florida international university except the political views of music during the founding era of united states. she claims it was used for many purposes, including political manipulation, taunting of at the series or enjoyment. performers from southern methodist university meadow school of the arts provide the company -- accompaniment to the talks. the one-hour event was sponsored by the smu center for presidential history. professor wood: this is my first visit to smu, my first visit to dallas. it's a beautiful campus and i hope i have a chance to come back sometime. tonight we will explore some of the uses of music in the politics of the early american republic. music mattered, even though the musical arts were not well developed here. music in america oh was in a