Billy Lee was the invisible man of the American Revolution. For nearly eight years, 1775 to 1783, Billy was at George Washington’s side wherever he went: the Boston Siege, the debacle on Long Island, the escape across the East River, the winter at Valley Forge, all engagements leading up to and including the British surrender at Yorktown. He slept in Washington’s tent every night, laid out his uniform, brushed his hair, and tied it with a bow every morning.
Several visitors at Valley Forge described Billy as a recognized celebrity, the personal emissary of His Excellency, greeted on a first-name basis by officers and troops alike. The two visual renderings of Billy in portraits by John Trumbull depict him wearing a turban, perhaps a personal affectation, perhaps his costume as designated leader of the servants kept by other senior officers. He was the most famous African American slave in America.
The relationship between Washington and Billy was always formal and official in public, unknowable in private. Later witnesses at Mount Vernon reported they communicated with silent nods and eye movements requiring no words. We do know that Washington began to struggle with the awkward contradiction of slavery during the war years, and it seems likely that the intimate relationship with Billy was an element in his education.
Billy was the only slave whom Washington freed outright in his will, providing an annual allowance of thirty dollars for the rest of his life. “Thus I give him as a testimony of his sense of attachment to me,” Washington wrote, “and for his faithful service during the Revolutionary War.” Billy remained at Mount Vernon as a free man, sought out by visitors and reporters for stories about his service alongside the General.
George Washington and William Lee by John Trumbull, 1780. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
He died in 1810 and is believed to be buried in the enslaved cemetery at Mount Vernon, though he died free.