For our loyal southerners, this may be of interest.

Posted on: July 10, 2020 at 16:29:54 CT

What did Robert E. Lee think of the Confederate resolution to execute black troops and their white officers? What was his view of black troops in general, during and after the war?

Robert Lee’s attitudes towards blacks, slaves, black American soldiers was similar to the other senior Confederate officers.

General Lee was a slave owner and he thought slavery was a great idea. He inherited some slaves and although they were suppose to be freed, he made great efforts to keep the slaves in bondage using violence.

He wrote:

I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy.

In other words, slavery is necessary for black people and white people should be in charge. Lee was a bona fide white supremacist.

Lee went further than that. He would badly beat any slave that tried to escape and he separated families, separating husband from wife, mother from child. Having said that, he did free the slaves inherited from his father-in-law, George Custis in accordance with Custis’ will after the stated period of 5 years and after he had exhausted efforts in the court to retain them.

During his invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee’s Army enslaved American citizens who happened to be black and sent them back to the South as property.

evidence links virtually every infantry and cavalry unit in Lee’s army to the abduction of free black Americans with the activity under the supervision of senior officers

So you can add kidnapping and enslavement to his glorious noble military resume.

As for his opinion of black African soldiers, it was negative.

At the Battle of the Crater in 1864 Confederate soldiers under the command of Lee massacred black Union soldiers who tried to surrender. Lee did not stop them.

When Lee proposed a prisoner exchange with the Union general Ulysses S. Grant, negotiations broke down over the treatment of Black soldiers.

Lee did not wish to exchange black Union soldiers for Confederate white soldiers. He argued that the black Union soldiers were the property of Confederate citizens and “not considered subjects of exchange”. Grant refused to compromise. And Lee refused to concede despite his army being short of manpower.

Lee wrote, “You will never prosper with blacks, and it is abhorrent to a reflecting mind to be supporting and cherishing those who are plotting and working for your injury, and all of whose sympathies and associations are antagonistic to yours.”

Compare him with Grant. Grant inherited “William Jones, a slave from his father in law. Grant was ridiculed for working side by side with him and other slaves. When the harvest failed that year, Grant was faced with serious financial problems but on March 1859, Grant chose to set his 35 year old slave free rather than sell him and make some needed money. Would we if we were in Grant’s position have done the same thing?

Please take a moment to think about this.

After the war, Lee did nothing to stop the formation of the KKK. He made no comment to the lynching of black people - men, women and children by KKK supporters. He did however object to any statue to be erected in his name.

We shouldn’t sugar coat history. It does a disservice to the people who perished from injustice. It leads to false conclusions which cause errors in future decision making.

Let it be known that Lee was a traitor to his country, a white racist slave owner who fought hard to preserve the institution of slavery and worked to enslave even free African Americans. Due to his efforts, hundreds of thousands of American and Confederate citizens, white and black, suffered greatly and perished.

The Civil War was an utter tragedy for America.

Google the photos of Civil War wounded and amputees. Take a good look at the handiwork of great Generals like Robert E. Lee.

The terrible war could have been avoided if the South did not so quickly resort to violence. President Lincoln himself said he wished the Union could be preserved if the South, at the beginning, chose to remain in the Union and kept their slaves.

Instead, the South fought to secede because the rich Southern landholders were worried that their right to keep slaves would be taken away by Lincoln. No such thing; it was a war based on conspiracy theories. Each time someone mentions about the nobility of the cause, think of the number of widows and orphans that perished because Lee and many others chose armed insurrection.

He killed American soldiers and worked to destroy the United States of America. Because of his “valiant efforts”, tens of thousands of Americans were killed. The Civil War would cost the lives of over 700,000 Americans and god knows how many civilians and ex-servicemen died an early miserable death due to injury, starvation, exposure, and disease. It seems America has forgotten that awful truth. The War is nothing to celebrate about.