American Civil War question

[Scipio]

quote author=Scipio link=topic=11895.msg780811#msg780811 date=1410641390]Slavery was economically unsustainable already when the Civil War started; Lee manumitted a number of Custis family slaves because he couldn't afford to keep them, which is recounted in the book Gods and Generals, IIRC. It would have been a matter of decades for slavery to die out.

He was required to manumit the Custis slaves per the terms of the will. He actually took a hiatus from his Army career to get the process under way (not finished until 1862 IIRC); the hitch was the Custis family plantation had immense debts, and legally you can't just manumit a slave that is part of collateral, so Lee had to actually get the fiscal house in order at his wife's family's plantation so he could comply with the terms of the will (which required manumission within five years of the will going into effect.) I believe he was able to get it done in the appropriate legal time limit, but it was a close thing and took up a lot of his efforts outside of soldiering.
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Ah, was that it?

I knew he couldn't afford them, anyway, but I didn't know it was in the will.