sentences:  His will provided for the emancipation of his slaves, the only slave-owning Founding Father to do so.Because many of his slaves were married to Martha's dower slaves, whom he could not legally free, Washington stipulated that, with the exception of his valet William Lee, who was freed immediately, his slaves be emancipated on the death of Martha.She freed them in 1801, a year before her own death, but her dower slaves were passed to her grandchildren and remained in bondage.