Known for

• Introducing the Lee Resolution​

• United States Senator from Virginia (1789-1792)

• President pro tempore of the United States Senate (1792)

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During 1776

• Delegate for Virginia

• Age: 45

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Background

• Born: 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia

  • ​The Lee family is historically significant in Virginia and Maryland, with achievements in politics and the military (quick rundown of this very illustrious lineage)

• Education: Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield

• Spouse: Anne Aylett (m. 1757, d. 1768), Anne Pinckard (m. 1769)

• ​Children: 13 (6 with Anne Aylett, 4 of whom survived infancy; 7 with Anne Pinckard, 5 of whom survived infancy)

• Slaveowning

  • Inherited 50 slaves from his father

    • Although the Lee family was wealthy and aristocratic, Richard Henry Lee himself wasn't that rich, as he had inherited only the slaves and some land​

      • His first-born brother, Philip Ludwell Lee, had inherited the Stratford Hall plantation

    • Richard Henry Lee rented out the slaves and land to other planters as his main source of income

  • Had strong anti-slavery sentiments

    • He wrote that Africans were "fellow creatures created as ourselves, and equally entitled to liberty and freedom by the great law of nature," and would eventually be driven to rebellion when they "observed their masters possessed of a liberty denied to them."

    • In 1769, he proposed that a high tax be assessed against importation of slaves in order to end the overseas slave trade.

      • Some criticized this proposal, saying he did this only to make his own slaves more valuable

  • However, Lee also admitted: "I do not see how I could in justice to my family refuse any advantages that might arise from the selling of [the slaves]."

  • Unclear if he ever manumitted any of his slaves

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Personal beliefs

• Politics: Patriot/Whig

  • He was instructed by Edmund Pendleton, President of the Virginia Convention, to propose what we now know as the Lee Resolution

    • On Wednesday, May 15, 1776, Pendleton had spoken to the Fifth Virginia Convention calling for independence from the British Empire

    • Pendleton sent the text of his speech to Richard Lee, who then presented it to the Continental Congress as a resolution. Some sources indicate that Lee used the language from the Virginia Convention's instructions almost verbatim

    • John Adams seconded the resolution

• Religion: Christian; denomination unclear