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In reply to the discussion: to all those who mix in Lee with Jefferson and Washington. [View all]Nevernose
(13,081 posts)A quick intro article is here: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/
There's some accuracy in what you say, but its also the best possible spin. Consider the issue of it actually being Lee's wife who owned the slaves. Given the status of women and their property in the 1850s, there's no practical or moral difference between Lee or his wife owning the slaves.
Especially because Lee was the executor of his wife's father's estate. Lee actually went to court to keep the slaves as long as he could; he could have freed them immediately as had been promised, but instead legally fought to keep them as long as possible. When two of them ran away, he personally whipped them, and wrote several times over his lifetime about the importance of cruelty.
Lee KNEW slavery was evil -- and actually said so -- like most people of the time did. He also claimed that because negroes were inferior, God wanted them enslaved.
Anyway, a lot of what we "know" about the Confederates is bogged down in revisionist bullshit designed to perpetuate the Noble Cause as long as possible.
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