Hannah Ludwell Lee was born on February 6, 1728, at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the daughter of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee. She grew up among the powerful Lee siblings, including Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, and Arthur Lee. Stratford provided wealth, private education, books, music, and extensive family connections, all supported by enslaved labor. Hannah learned reading, writing, religion, household management, needlework, and the social accomplishments expected of a planter’s daughter. Her surviving correspondence shows intelligence and willingness to question conventions. Unlike her brothers, however, she could not vote, hold office, or independently control property while married. She married Gawin Corbin, a wealthy planter considerably older than she was, and moved into another prominent household. They had children, and Hannah managed domestic and plantation responsibilities. After Corbin’s death, widowhood gave her greater control over property and allowed a more independent public voice. Hannah formed a long relationship with Dr. Richard Lingan Hall, though legal and family considerations complicated marriage. She also became interested in Baptist religious ideas, challenging the Anglican establishment of her upbringing. Before becoming known for protesting taxation without representation for property-owning women, Hannah had been shaped by elite education, famous brothers, marriage, motherhood, widowhood, property management, religious questioning, and firsthand experience of women’s legal disabilities. In correspondence with Richard Henry Lee, she argued that widows who paid taxes should have political representation. Her critique arose not from abstract theory alone but from the contrast between her competence as an estate manager and her exclusion as a woman.