Today, while the country is honoring the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, I would like to pause as well to honor another black man from an earlier century, also a minister of God: Rev. William Mack Lee.
William acquired his surname from the famous commander of the Confederate army, not through paternity, but through ownership. That’s right, William Mack Lee was, in his own words, the body servant of General Robert E. Lee ~
I was born June 12, 1835, Westmoreland County, Va.; 82 years ago. I was raised at Arlington Heights, in the house of General Robert E. Lee, my master. I was cook for Marse Robert, as I called him, during the civil war and his body servant. I was with him at the first battle of Bull Run, second battle of Bull Run, first battle of Manassas, second battle of Manassas and was there at the fire of the last gun for the salute of the surrender on Sunday, April 9, 9 o’clock, A. M., at Appomatox, 1865.
Source: SonoftheSouth.net
Sixteen years after the Civil War ended, Lee was ordained as a Baptist missionary minister. He spent the ensuing decades founding several churches (in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia) and preaching throughout Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1918 he wrote a small book, the “History of the Life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee,” partially a fundraiser to complete payment on his most recent church.
The Bedford Bulletin (Bedford, VA) helped promote those efforts ~
Rev. William Mack Lee, one of the best known colored men in the South, is in town this week making an effort to raise funds to complete the payment on his church near Norfolk. He is a Baptist minister and built the church at a cost of $5,500, of which all has been paid except about $500, and he wants to raise this before he returns home.
Here’s an excerpt from Lee’s “History” ~
I have some gavels made out of the poplar where Marse Robert bade farewell to his comrades and instructed them to go home and make themselves good citizens and may I urge those who read this book, especially my people, to take the advice of the humble writer, try to make yourselves good citizens by being industrious, save your money, educate yourselves, buy property, etc., let your religion be more practical and less sentimental. The best friends we have are the Southern people who know all about our raising, and if we colored people want to get along well with the white people, we must show our behavior to, respect and be obedient to them. These are my views to our race.
Recalling Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream, are there any doubts at all about the content of Rev. William Mack Lee’s character?
I have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ the best I knew, with my limited preparation, for 57 years. My master, at his death, left me $360 to educate myself with. I went to school. I studied hard at the letter, but my greatest learning came from Jesus Christ. God sent me out to preach, and when God sends a man out, he is qualified both with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit. He makes his words sharp as a two-edged sword, and his feet as a burning pillar of brass.
And, as for Robert E. Lee and his character ~
“I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender.”
~ Rev. William Mack Lee ~
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.
