He also privately opposed the Confederacy early on

Posted on: August 18, 2017 at 13:23:56 CT

In 1861 he said the Confederacy was unconstitutional, a betrayal of the country etc. He initially seemed like he was going to fight for the Union. "I shall never bear arms against the Union"...whoa is this the same guy whose statue we are supposed to tear down??? "...but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Opps...oh, so that's how all this got started.

Again, he was from a slave owning culture and at one point he sold some black people into slavery. He definitely was a part of the problem. But he clearly was torn about which side to join, and being as good a General as he was, if his waffling had led to him sticking with the Union instead of defending his home state of Virginia instead, he would probably be right up there with Lincoln as one of the celebrated "He freed the slaves!!!" statues and monuments around the country. And like how we forget that Grant actually owned slaves at one time, people would probably also find a way to casually forget that Lee had sold some people into slavery once.

But he flipped and chose the other side. And now he's the epicenter of the whole debate. Funny how that goes.

Edited by McMuffin at 13:43:40 on 08/18/17