‘It’s easy to look back after 140 years and see that slavery was a doomed institution. But I’m not aware of any Southern leader of the time who thought slavery was destined for an early end.’
Jefferson Davis wrote as much, and Lee stated numerous times his view was much the same, except he qualified it with the realization concerning ‘their current state of development’ which I took to mean education.
In the last ten months of the war, the South seriously discussed arming slaves with the promise they’d be free men after hostilities ended. They never did it, but the fact it was discussed repeatedly in their Congress is recorded fact.
I'm not aware of any quotes by Davis indicating that. And Lee's opposition to slavery was mild at best, but he was still prepared to see it go on for decades if not centuries if that was what he believed God's will was.
In the last ten months of the war, the South seriously discussed arming slaves with the promise they’d be free men after hostilities ended. They never did it, but the fact it was discussed repeatedly in their Congress is recorded fact.
Arming slaves had been proposed several times during the war and had idea had always been met with horror. It's telling to note that even at the end in March 1865 when the confederate congress finally bit the bullet and agreed to enlist free blacks and slaves as combat soliders the legislation authorizing it specifically refused to free slaves that served.