08-25-2017, 12:29 PM
(08-25-2017, 12:21 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Fighting for Virginia, or as Lee would have it called it his country, was most important to him. If Virginia would have freed the slaves and then joined the Union instead, he would have led all the Union armies on the outset of the war to come. But his loyalties were to Virginia first and foremost, that can't be argued. So that part is correct.
I think though when I see things on Facebook and otherwise on the other part of Lee being in favor of freeing the slaves, it is an attempt to rewrite history so to speak to make him seem more noble and acceptable to today's world. Which is no different than the reason why so many of these Confederate monuments were put up in the 1900s, which was the South's attempt to rewrite a history of 4 years of treason to protect slavery, by saying it was a 'war between the states' and these figures should be glorified, all the while conveniently glossing over slavery.
Lee and others felt Virginia needed to make up its own mind on slavery, not let the federal government decide it for them. This is why the whole "states' rights" argument happens, though it is often ignored that they are talking about slavery being the issue the states wanted the right to decide. A lot of the people at the time felt slavery was immoral, but feared economic collapse if it were abolished.
