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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Exactly. General Lee disagreed with Slavery.

Big deal. Just about every one of his generals believed in slavery. Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, every member of the cabinet, the congress and the state executives believed deeply in slavery. The opinions of the political leadership counted for more than one general, even if that general was Robert Lee.

165 posted on 11/29/2002 4:40:13 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
And what exactly is your point? I was agreeing with the poster who said that most Southerners were fighting for their state and not slavery. To believe otherwise is purely revisionist b.s., but you probably won't/don't want to believe this. no more discussion on this topic with me.
181 posted on 11/29/2002 6:13:40 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: Non-Sequitur
Sir, you are quite wrong about Jefferson Davis's views on slavery. You should read President Davis's Inaugural Address, which does not even mention slavery.
Davis and his older brother Joseph ran their plantation with a view toward the freedom of their slaves as soon as possible. They even established a court system by which no slave could be punished except by a jury of his peers (i.e., other slaves). See "The South Was Right," pages 103-104. The master could commute but could never increase the punishment. In this and many other ways, the Davis brothers constantly strived to prepare their charges for a day which they knew and hoped would soon come in which slavery would not exist and for the challenges of life as a free man.

You do know, do you not, that Jefferson Davis's wife Varina Davis formally adopted a black orphan named Jim Limber? See "The South Was Right," pages 104-105. Jim was an integral part of the Davis household until the invading Yankee aggressors captured him and took him away, never to be heard from again.

You must tell me how you account for the fact that, even after the war, the former slaves of the Davis family largely refused to leave. (Of course, this was common throughout the South.) The former slaves with pride and true devotion continued to care for Mr. and Mrs. Davis throughout their lives, even without financial compensation. When Jefferson Davis died in 1889, there was a tremendous display of grief and affection from his former slaves. One particularly poignant tribute came from a former slave in, of all places, North Dakota. See "The South Was Right," page 105-106.

I find it very telling that these documented tributes from former slaves are exceptionally well-written, leading me to believe that the efforts of Jefferson and his brother Joseph to prepare their charges for the burdens of free men were mostly successful. Of course, there is the undeniable fact that, precisely because the Davis family were such good and kind people, their former slaves tended to never want to leave them.

Tell me this, you despisers of Southern culture, how many of your employees would stay with you and serve you loyally and without complaint and without pay or much beyond the level of subsistence? None? Well, I guess that that means that you are just not in the same class as the slaveholders of the Old South. In which case, on what basis do you presume to judge them? Oh, so you think that the "darkies" were just simple-minded? How racist of you!

Slavery was wrong, but history and the undisputed facts shows that these people who owned slaves were honorable and noble. It is up to us to try to reconcile these two apparently contradictory truths.
190 posted on 11/29/2002 7:51:17 PM PST by Iwo Jima
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