Seriously, how can you celebrate the man who fought to defend slavery?
That’s not the way they saw it then.
You should be grateful to Lee. The South could have engaged in a guerilla war after hostilities ended that would have lasted for decades. Lee put a stop to it and told his generals to back down.
> Seriously, how can you celebrate the man who fought to defend slavery?
Seriously, read a history book.
Robert E. Lee did not own slaves and believed slavery to be wrong. (Grant on the other hand had several slaves to care for his wife.)
After the war when several freed slaves were being asked to leave a church service, Lee stated to the pastor that if they weren’t welcome then neither was he. The church reversed its decision and allowed blacks from then on.
Seriously, you need to read some history.
It never takes long for the yankees to show up.
Other posters in this thread have suggested that reading some additional history would be valuable. I concur but caution against taking the words of leftists with an anti-Southern agenda at face value. As always, consider the source.
I can heartily recommend the profile page of one of the more astute FReepers, that of nathanbedford. His depth of scholarship is self-evident and he presents a factual, no-holds-barred, balanced treatment of one of the more controversial figures of the Confederacy, Nathan Bedford Forrest. I think it will challenge some of the conventional "wisdom" that's become conflated with truth over the decades.
And I write this with all due respect and in the tradition of Free Republic where thoughtful analysis trumps feelings.
Lee freed his slaves. He urged Blacks should be recognized in the Army of the Confederacy, He was loved by both blacks and whites. Had the south won—I feel he would have been elected to the presidency of the CSA and he would have freed the slaves in a humane and gentile way—today he would be a hero to all blacks. Jackson too fought to give black children Sunday school—teaching it himself when it was illegal! He believe God laws was greater than any state law.