Chapter 21

Uncle Robert

Robert was facing a depressing reality. While he worked to reduce the family’s landholdings and the enslaved people they claimed, his family questioned his belief system and his lack of a traditional family life. Robert faded into retirement beset with questions and regrets about his past, but also gratified by the changes he had witnessed in his lifetime. He never discussed his spying activities during his lifetime, but history preserved his letters and ledgers that allowed the mystery to re-emerge a century and a half later.