The Progressive Robert E. Lee on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which ended the American Civil War on this day in 1865. While it is popular to portray Lee as a racist figure, a closer look him reveals someone quite different, perhaps even a progressive. 

Robert E. Lee had a distaste for slavery. "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race."

Lee freed his slaves early on. "In fact, it is a curious commentary on the motives connected with the war, that while Lee had set his slaves free, [Union General Ulysses S] Grant is said to have continued in the ownership of slaves until they were emancipated by the government of the United States" during the war. Lee was "in favor of freeing all the slaves in the South, giving to each owner a bond to be the first paid by the Confederacy when its independence should be secured." ~Thomas Nelson Page

https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/08/robert-e-lees-views-on-slavery.html

Some, who believe that the war was fought over slavery will be confused by the above. The war was not initially fought to free the slaves. Many Northern soldiers were actually upset after the Emancipation Proclamation: “Plenty of soldiers believed that the proclamation had changed the purpose of the war...They professed to feel betrayed. They were willing to risk their lives for the Union, they said, but not for black freedom.” [James McPherson, For Cause and Comrades, p. 120.]

McPherson wrote of a “backlash of anti-emancipation sentiment” in the Federal army and quotes various officers as saying things like, “If emancipation is to be the policy of this war… I do not care how quick the country goes to pot.” A Massachusetts sergeant wrote in a letter that “if anyone thinks that this army is fighting to free the [black man]… they are terribly mistaken.” Another officer declared that “I don't want to fire another shot for the [black man] and I wish that all the abolitionists were in hell… I do not fight or want to fight for Lincoln's...proclamation one day longer.”

But, as is often the case, wrong ideas about the Civil War and the people who fought for it continue to persist which leads to misinformation about people like Robert E. Lee...so much so that a few years ago ESPN pulled an announcer from calling a University of Virginia football game because his name was Robert Lee. This Robert Lee was Asian.

See also When Blacks Owned Slaves, by Calvin Dill Wilson 1905
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-blacks-owned-slaves-by-calvin-dill.html

You may also be interested in 220 Books on the American Civil War on DVDrom 1861-1865

For a list of all of my disks, ebooks (Amazon and PDF) click here