Francis Lightfoot Lee

Foreign. I am Francis Lightfoot Lee, a son of Virginia, a brother in freedom, a quiet man from a loud family, and one who signed his name firmly for liberty. I was born in Stratford hall in 1734 to a family of leaders who served in Virginia since the 1600s. My father, Thomas Lee, sent my brothers to be educated in England. I expected my future to be the same. But I was merely 16 when my parents died, and with them my formal education. I stayed behind to bury the sorrow, tend the land, and carry the weight they left to me. Like the Lees before me, I took up a seat in the House of Burgesses. I stood against the Stamp act and all that followed. My brother Richard Henry lit the halls with speeches. I preferred parchment. Action, conviction. In 1775, we both went to Congress, and in 1776 we signed the Declaration to brothers for Independence. I also helped write the Articles of Confederation, giving structure to a new nation just finding its shape. As part of Congress, I urged aid for Washington's starving army during the brutal winter of Valley Forge. When the war gave way to peace, I returned to Menikin, the estate I shared with my wife, Rebecca. We never had children, and when I passed, shortly after my beloved, I left what I had to my nephew Ludwig. Because in our family, duty didn't end with death. It passed through generations. Now it is your duty to pass on what we fought for for future generations as.