The Future of Confederate Monuments
As the nation reckons with its racist history, legislation calling for the removal of Confederate commemorative works from national parkland is likely to be reconsidered this year.
By Kim O'Connell
If you knew nothing about the U.S. Civil War and traveled to Gettysburg National Military Park, you might be forgiven for believing the South won, based on a reading of the monuments alone.
The statue of Southern commander Robert E. Lee on horseback, which also serves as the monument to the fighting sons of his home state of Virginia, stands at 41 feet tall, including both statue and pedestal. It’s more than double the height of the similar equestrian statue of Union Gen. George Gordon Meade that sits across the field, despite the fact that Meade was the victor at Gettysburg, helping to turn the tide of the war.
Lee’s prominence at Gettysburg, along with the estimated 1,700 Confederate commemorative works that still stand across the United States, is now under scrutiny. In recent years, the nation’s racist history has been debated and confronted in a variety of ways, with Confederate names and symbols being removed from public squares, schools, and flagpoles across the South and elsewhere. And yet, the Confederate battle flag is still hoisted aloft and visible in places like the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and at the U.S. Capitol insurrection last month, not to mention on countless car bumpers, t-shirts, and gift shop tables.
Last summer, Democratic lawmakers in the fiscal 2021 spending package included language that would have required the National Park Service to remove Confederate monuments from all National Park System sites within six months. Although that language didn’t make it into the final bill, it’s likely to be reintroduced this year.
The proposal is raising a debate not only between those who support Confederate symbols and those who say they prop up a legacy of hate, but between those who say the Park Service needs more time to inventory and consider these works and those who say the Confederacy has been given time enough.
At issue, too, is the crusty legacy of the “Lost Cause,” the mythologizing of the Southern warriors that recast them as fighting not to support slavery but to maintain states’ rights (overlooking, of course, that those "rights" included enslaving other human beings). Most of the Confederate monuments erected on national parklands were placed there in the early 20th century, well after the war, during the height of Jim Crow segregation. They are not interpretive historical markers, opponents say, but symbols of white supremacy and oppression.
The National Park Service was a willing participant in this effort, allowing groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy to sponsor monuments on its battlefields that helped to elevate and equalize the losing side. Hence, the existence of the Lee monument at Gettysburg, erected in 1917, and the Robert E. Lee Memorial, as his former home in Arlington, Virginia, is designated — despite the fact that Lee was an often-brutal slaveowner who took up arms against his own government.
“This is not about erasing history or denying anyone’s heritage,” said U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat from Minnesota and a key advocate of the removal legislation, during a Congressional subcommittee debate last July. “This is about whether we’re willing to do the hard work needed to confront the truth of our history and to work to right past wrongs. In order to do that, it means ending the use of Confederate symbols which continue to be used today to intimidate and terrorize millions of our American citizens.”
McCollum isn’t sure yet what form the removal requirement might take, but she plans to support it, and she thinks the NPS is well positioned to move quickly. “As to whether or not I’ll do formal legislation, I’ll still be making sure I continue to work on removing these symbols of discrimination and oppression on public lands,” McCollum said in an interview with the Traveler. “People at the Park Service are smart enough and well-trained enough that they probably have a good idea what they have [in terms of Confederate monuments]. The people who work on our public lands -- they are professionals. I’m sure many have been thinking about it already.”
Other park advocates argue, however, that the Park Service needs far more time to consider the monuments and their specific roles in their particular landscapes, noting that some monuments might be historically significant in their own right, perhaps because of the artist who sculpted or designed them or some other reason. The ground disturbance from monument removal could also trigger federally required archaeological assessments or other studies to discern impacts on the historic landscape.
“This is not an issue to be resolved by an act of Congress,” says former NPS Director Jon Jarvis, now the chair of the board for UC-Berkeley’s Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity. “There are literally thousands of monuments to the soldiers of the North and the South on the various Civil War battlefields maintained by the NPS. Many are important because they mark a particular battle, a skirmish, victory or loss, on the actual ground where people died. These monuments are used by the NPS staff in their interpretation of the events and are often important for context. That is very different from a bronze guy on a horse in the middle of a traffic circle placed there to intimidate.”
Jarvis encourages President Biden to request that Congress commission a study, led by prominent and diverse historians, to evaluate the monuments against a set of agreed-upon standards to help determine which ones get removed or put in some other context, such as a museum or warehouse.
“A better symbolic measure by Congress would be to direct the Park Service to complete an analysis of its monuments and report back in two years and then they would get to work on it,” Jarvis says. “What is needed to respond to those who were disenfranchised during the Civil War and during Reconstruction is a reinterpretation of the Civil War, and we stated that during the sesquicentennial. Rather than focus on taking down this or that monument…provide the platform for the telling of a broader story and to not respond to a quick fix.”
Although the National Parks Conservation Association hasn’t released an official policy on this yet, the organization generally supports giving NPS the time and resources to assess its Confederate works. “We want the Park Service to have the opportunity to inventory their commemorative works,” says NPCA’s Mid-Atlantic Senior Regional Director Joy Oakes. “We want the professionals to have a thoughtful and informed process.”
NPCA Advisory Board member Edwin Fountain, a historic preservation expert, adds that some monuments, such as the Lee statue at Gettysburg, are more than 100 years old and are therefore considered “contributing features” on the historic landscape, to use preservation parlance. “So on what grounds do you just start saying, ‘Oh, we're going to start removing contributing features from national parks.’ I'm not saying that ends all debate, but it's got to be part of the debate.”
Others believe, however, that these symbols are keeping a significant segment of people away from these parks. It's worth noting that only an estimated 7 percent of national park visitors are Black.
“The Park Service needs to ask, ‘Who’s coming to your site and who’s not coming to your site?’” says Denise Meringolo, a professor of public history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History. “Those monuments are a barrier to significant portions of the audience, for whom they are not simply inaccurate or annoying. They are traumatizing.”
Meringolo says that people should reconsider the prevalent assumption that monuments are permanent. “If a goal of a monument is to represent some kind of civic culture that we believe is worth discussing, and if we want to put up these things to represent common values, when someone says, ‘This doesn’t represent the values we hold dear,’ maybe it’s time to take them down. They’re not doing the work that we think they are doing. A monument is always an assertion of power and authority. It’s staking a claim.”
Historian and educator Kevin Levin, author of Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, says it’s worth listening to those whose voices have long been silenced and to use this moment as an opportunity for more context and interpretation.
“Many of these monuments went up at a time when African Americans were simply disfranchised,” Levin says. “They were, for legal reasons, for political reasons, just unable to voice their own view about how the war should be commemorated in public spaces. And so I think for that reason alone, this has to be taken seriously. But at the same time, I draw a distinction between Park Service sites like Gettysburg and, say, Richmond's Monument Avenue.”
Whether all or just some of the monuments stay or go, Levin believes there is enough NPS battlefield land to provide additional context about the Confederate monuments so that visitors can get a more complete picture of how and why they got there, and what their existence says about who we are.
“I do think there's an opportunity at places like Gettysburg, acknowledging that the Confederate monuments are problematic to many people,” Levin continues. “The Park Service has a responsibility to face that.”
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Comments
Stop trying to destroy our nation's heroes, ancestors and beautiful artwork. These destructions are being done by those with hate in their hearts and those who always want to destroy our history.
AMEN!
the destruction is of a misconception many folks have about how things went down, ma'am. No disrespect... just saying. I used to be obsessed and labored under misguided ideas re: southern culture in the antebellum south. We need to teach the truth once we flesh it out and then represent it on public lands where all citizens feel comfortable with their own acceptance at these sites where American history has been made. We are moving forward, ma'am. Please get on board with this American experiment and fulfillment of our true ideals... Like Thomas Jefferson, this country has not been in the right but I guess we'll get there. The lost cause of the South is not the best way for us....
I agree. People with hate in their hearts will continue this hate if all confederate monuments are removed. It doesn't stop here
Exactly! You can't erase history no matter how awful it was at times or good! Nobody praises the monuments they're there for educational purposes! Instead of these so called "righteous" people who think they're actually making a difference by trying remove historical facts. Sad to say you can't rewrite history and act like it didn't happen! How about putting new monuments up next to the ones standing and continue the true story of history and add to it! That makes more sense! You learn from mistakes! You can't show mistakes to others if you don't have anything to show!
That's YOUR history and YOUR artwork and YOUR heroes. These monuments were done during a time when hate being present in the hearts of those doing the oppressing was the norm...so spare us your nationalistic rhetoric. Either accept ALL history and the progress it creates for the future....or just keep your ancestral cry babying to yourself
That's incredible ignorant. If you're American it's your history and artwork, like it or not.
I agree.....it's history! What's next?
Amen to that,keep our history
I don't think you understand the meaning of hate. I just wish white people could get a taste of what they dished out in the past. Im sure you all would be having wlm rallys.
How much hate (or greed, which is no better) is in one's heart to enslave an innocent people?
How about in those that DEFEND the racist, traitorous slave holders?
The 'works of art' were designed and erected with one purpose: to continue intimidating those over whom the War of Southern Treason (I.e. the Civil War) was fought. If any are to remain, only the actual facts should be written on the plaques...
That the South wanted to have slaves. That the rich got the stupid poor to do their fighting for them. That documents from every treasonous state prove this to be the case. That there was no 'noble cause' on the South's side of things. Say all of those things, and maybe, only maybe, some of the statues and monuments can remain. Some are too heinous for even that, though, and need to go.
I love history. I want it to be ACCURATE, however, not some fictitious dream of dolts that cowardly hide behind disingenuous terms like 'heritage'.
I DO hate, in my heart, those that twist history. That lie about what happened. That think a fake tale of the past is more important than the ongoing reality of the present.
That kind of 'hate' is good, because maybe someday it will drive out the dark, malicious hatred that lurks in the hearts of those that desire evil to win.
Seems to me that a lot of people have forgot history further back Beteen roughly 1622 and roughly very early 20th century upwards of 30 million native Americans were exterminated by our ancestors ,because the native or as I prefer first people were in the way. They tried any and all means to accommodate their demands but they were pushed further away from their ancestral lands. Also they were captured by the tens of thousands by england and and European nations and shipped wherever they were needed by these countries as slaves until they died.. Admit we have slaughtered,annihilated and otherwise got rid of anything that has stood in our way period.. Until we as a people admit to the genocide we committed we will never be free a a people and a nation.
Don't remove everything, teach history. Robert E Lee lost Gettysburg, the South lost the war, they were fighting to enslave people.
It's very important to know our countries history not erase it like never happened
I am a Yankee, but I think we should save the statues. If hate language is attached, cover the words.
First book I read was about civil war at about 8 yro. Then had interest in the history of that war. I was 15 and could not read about that war any longer. It was so sad. Officers that were in school together went to where there family lived to fight againce what was class mates friends. Later one story of union officer nursing fallen class mate Confederate officer as he died. And it was worst for guys in field. Poor white farmers fighting poor white northerners . How many of the soldiers from south do you think had slaves. I remember slave was worth way more than horse. But what about north work children and women in factorys at wages they lived worst slave. Kids get hung up in that machine's back then just tuff stuff. Just hire different kid or same man or woman. Sick your on your own. Machines back then belt driven no guards or any safety devices anywhere. Power shafts and gears and belts. Feeding what needed while running. Then talk about slaves.
When did statue intimidate scare a person in their right mind this many years after the fact. Like it said when this all started out it was states rights the North had all the machinery and production buy factories and the South was agrarian . Why else would poor or middle guy fight a war for rich..
Read details of action how fireing fort Fort Sumter and the showing that continued. Read about the first battle up by Washington DC and how everyone thought this battle or a week and the war would be over.
These people were lead into bloody 4 years hell. Did not end after the war. Mark Twain said war touched every child woman and man. War came to there towns farm all land then there wasStruggle to survive during war and after for years. All my family was in the war were on Union side o guess because famly was in Nebr.? We have there records. Not sure they knew why they went. But again why would a statue intimidate scare you. Why would you want monuments to all those Americans on both sides left in place so we can understand the conflict better now. Take your George Soros money and see a counselor or check yourself into a psych ward. There was plenty of Injustice has in the north as much as there was then in the south. Want to look a lot deeper and maybe look at the statues on both sides and their families behind them you don't see.
No black person hugged me and thank me for my family's service to set them free. Really that be stupid. But most blacks like most whites are clueless. Thats good reason right there have parks monuments and statues. We lost more Americans in that war then any other War we have been in. It was brutal the men were ill fed and medicine and doctoring was unheard of. I did read one time that there was boxcars loads of opium's opiates that were shipped to the battlefields. I just hold them both sides had the opportunity to relieve suffering of them for kids that were into something they had no idea where it would go.
I will tell you I'm more upset to the woke and clue less tearing down our country . 155 years later civil war was fought by Americans. It was sad mass killing. Go to court houses Iowa ,Illinois look at list of people from that County that were killed in the Civil War. It's large list on Stone monuments. Dont throw it away. That what they do in 3th world. Hate to say this but communist like tear down countrys history. Then try put there story line in there
Dont let them. Look at language used in this article it is childlike in his accusations against the American people on both sides is belittling. How can a bunch of people with so little knowledge on our history and our people came up behind us try to rewrite it to fit their narrative. Don't let them. Don't let them post here fight back.
They are true people hate. I pointed it out in my post above. Love our parks. There are our gift. And our gift to ones come after us.
Gregg
Please, no one is destroying history, if anything these participation trophies distort the reality of the situation. They belong in a museum where they can get proper context, not in the faces of the decendants of those the traitorous confederates wanted to enslave. You are a moron if you think it is destroying history, read a book loser.
Right on Mary! You don't erase our history, you learn from it!!
I agree slavery was dying and would have died on its own very soon in fact Virginia's legislatures were only one vote short of freeing the slaves in 1860 if you look at history and the legislation passed by Congress you would see why the South fought for states rights because the legislation was forcing the South into selling their goods to the northern factories and buying everything from them
Seems like you haven't put much thought into this.
In my heart, hatred by the black community, police statues and monuments is well understood. But to destroy our history in such a way has to desecrate, or viciously destroy makes us a party to their intent to glorify the confederacy. Leave those monuments up it will reveal the shame what the Confederacy was, not states rights; the enslavement of the black race. By the way I'll let the truth speak for itself and I am of the white race.
Are you sure we're talking about "our nation's heroes" here? Six million innocent lives were lost in little more than ten years when proudly strutting white supremacists marched their murderous way across Europe. Yet, the descendants of the perpetrators of that mass murder, rather than continue celebrating that history, at least had the decency to dismantle and destroy the souvenirs of their monstrous legacy on their own.
How many innocents were enslaved, captively bred, tortured, and worked to death by what you call "our nation's heroes" and their ancestors over the hundreds of years slavery endured here? How much hate did those "heroes" have in their hearts when they went to war against their nation, our nation, went to war to destroy this country and its history, in order to perpetuate a society so spoiled rotten that it was fueled by little more than the enslavement, torture, and captive labor of innocent individuals right here on this continent?
humphrey, your leftist racist views are very efficient, maybe you can educate yourself by that famous philosopher George santayana:' THOSE WHO DONT REMEMBER HISTORY AEE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT!!!
Don’t you mean a war started over tariff taxes on the South that were overcharged by the northern government by the way had slaves of their own. Slavery was used as the agenda but northern greed was the reaso. Don’t forget that slavery went on throughout the world ofall races. There were more white race colored ones sold as slaves across the world then their was black but you never hear of this it’s only of those that cry the loudest that you hear the remaining races moved forwar. As for the statues they’re history and should stay.
Exactly! At one point there were as many if not more slaves in the North. Lincoln had no intention of freeing slaves at all and said as much. These soldiers DID NOT march hundreds of miles to defend slavery.....period. And certainly if it was about slavery you would think that it would have kicked off with the Emancipation Proclamation, right? However that was 2 years after the start of the war. Remember, a lot of these Confederates were drafted to start. Of course this is a distraction from the TRUE reason the South left the Union, a tyrannical federal government with oppressive taxes and wealth transfer focused on strengthening and consolidating their own power. Sound familiar? I bet it scared the Hell out of them to think the People could revolt. This whole thing stinks to high Heaven
The issue raised by "the lost cause " apparently WAS and continues to be an issue of "fair hearing ". The debate is unilateral PRECISELY the issue to be addressed.
I marvel at the way these Programming Centers (Called Schools), have put a spell on their captive audience (called students), and brainwashed them into believing this pseudoscience called race. They've weaponized anthropology for a reason, but folks are too "educated" (programmed) to know why; Black Lies Matter.
Did you grow up in the south? Did you grow up hearing about the atrocities committed to the people of Vicksburg? Do you have family who fought in the war? I do, and did to all of these questions. I'm from the Mississippi delta and grew up looking for cannon balls in fields by levee. Grew up on stories of Holt Collier and his amazing loyalty to what y'all are trying to condemn. Do you know who he is? Were you or a member of your family a slave? I doubt it, but if so then celebrate their accomplishments. Just as I celebrate my families history in the war. My family is from the hills of Mississippi originally and Tennessee. They were poor so they didn't own slaves but yet they went to war with the north. This is where you are probably thinking "yea cause they was racist too". I can't answer that but what I can answer is the stories I was told was because my family didn't want people invading their lands and destroying their homes. That is why my family fought the Yankees and that is why I honor them as I hope you do your family. Slavery was wrong, we all agree on that, but did you ever think about the fact that almost all of the industrial revolution was taking place in the north? There was no industry except agriculture in the south. Not to mention all the taxed agriculture money went to the north. We was left with nothing but the plantation as a way of life. Destroying history isn't going to make anything better for anyone. Because none of us were them people. But it's seems like today's so called movement wishes to act as if all black people were just freed!! Get over your hate and let freedom ring or this isn't America anymore.
If people like you keep up this dumb and hateful dribble the country will certainly be destroyed. This post just how hateful people like you can become,
. Have you never heard what Sherman did in Georgia? Not just to whites, but blacks also?
Your comment is asinine! About 650,000 soldiers from both sides lost their lives in the War between the States. But, between 1.25 and 1.33 freed black slaves lost their lives due to starvation, deprivation, being worked to death or violence, brought about by the Union Army. The war was not fought over slavery. Both Lincoln repeatedly stated this fact and Congress declared it. Congress even passed the Corwin Amendment to enshrine slavery, in the hopes of stopping secession. The United States and the former colonies permitted slavery from 1619 until the passage of the 15th Amendment. Statements like yours are profoundly divisive and show a great lack of historical knowledge but profess a coddling liberal sympathy based on foolishness.
Slavery was an abomination that needed to be destroyed, but 98% of the Confederate soldiers did not own slaves. Do you really think they lost limbs, and lives for the slave holders that did? No. They fought, and died for their state. The issue of state rights was with us since the American Revolution, and had never really been resolved. Slavery was the most promenent, and important of those rights. To label all who fought for their states as torturers, and enslavers of innocent individuals, is both untrue, and unfair. Their misguided efforts to support their states should not be ridiculed, or erased from our history. As wrong as it was, they fought, and died for what they believed in. Nothing is more "American" than that!
Slavery was an abomination that needed to be destroyed, but 98% of the Confederate soldiers did not own slaves. Do you really think they lost limbs, and lives for the slave holders that did? No. They fought, and died for their state. The issue of state rights was with us since the American Revolution, and had never really been resolved. Slavery was the most promenent, and important of those rights. To label all who fought for their states as torturers, and enslavers of innocent individuals, is both untrue, and unfair. Their misguided efforts to support their states should not be ridiculed, or erased from our history. As wrong as it was, they fought, and died for what they believed in. Nothing is more "American" than that!
The comparison between the Confederate soldiers and the Nazi soldiers is absolutely horrific and should be very insulting to any American. not only was Hitler a racist he also believed in evolution and that system is taught freely and our public School systems.
Adolf Hitler's biggest problem was not that he was a racist as much of society has used racism to maintain their country's sanctity over a human history. Hitler's problem was he was a dictator and he was a totalitarian conqueror. Yes he hated Jews but he killed so much more than just Jews.
If we're going to tell the story of history we need to tell the whole story of history quite frankly throughout history when multiple countries or races would try to come together and live in the same society a war would break out along racial or family lines. Slavery was a problem America inherited from Britain as we had it before we became a country. 3/4 of the Confederate soldiers did not own slaves and they weren't fighting to squelch the black man. This injects a racist thought into the lives of Confederate soldiers who died that were not racist this Is a lie this makes up a conspiracy theory this propagates an untruth. also many people lost their fathers and their brothers and their cousins and their uncles during the civil war between this country. They wanted to memorialize them this was not memorializing a conqueror of hate who put me on trains and killed them. The South was only fighting to maintain the America the one that Thomas Jefferson founded. Yes it had slaves and slavery has unfortunately been a humongous part of human history but to tear down these statues and these memorials that were not meant to intimidate black people, there's no proof of that anywhere but were meant to memorialize the loss of human lives between this country when we were split over a political decision.
Slavery was unfortunate , the civil war was unfortunate Abraham Lincoln's death was unfortunate. Robert E Lee and the survivors of the civil war went on to assimilate back into America and become America again.
Yes the whole story should be told but tearing down statues forces only one side to be told. the majority of the fighting was between the white Union and the white Confederacy as black soldiers were not commonplace during the civil war.
consider the issue of abortion where a baby that is alive and well in the mother's womb is viciously killed right now. One day hopefully this will be outlawed everywhere and this atrocious violation of human rights will be stopped but currently it is allowed in the United States of America.
What then will we do get rid of all the statues of people who were pro-abortion? No you leave them for their place in history you honor the good they do but you don't honor the bad.
I I never owned slaves and I don't know any black people that picked cotton. The problem is that WE can NOT move on...it happened and thats a fact. But the real question is what do you want? Do you know a confederate soldier invented Coca-Cola? Well, its a fact...so what should we do? Should we get rid of Coca-Cola? Coca-Cola has made a lot of people rich! You do know the Jewish people live in Berlin Germany now....right? Somehow the Jewish people manage to move on...they don't forget...but they move on.
Seriously? You are comparing Stonewall Jackson for example to Nazi's.
You clearly are out of your depth and have no understanding of history.
However, since I am a believer in the 1st amendment I support and applaud your right to demonstrate your complete ignorance.
Except in a few rare cases such as Gettysburg the South was fighting to repel an unconstitutional invasion from the North.
The Confederacy valiantly resisted in spite of overwhelming odds against them.. The vast majority of Confederate soldiers did not own slaves but were merely protecting their homeland. Destroying monuments is something Marxist Socialists do.
I’m a supporter of historic preservation and includes some reminders of an unsavory past. I’m ‘be quite understood the reverence shown to Confederate politicians, leaders, and generals. They were rebels and traitors to the United States. Their legacy has not been a good one.
While I support the removal of statued to people like Nathan Bedford Forrest from public spaces, I feel differentmy from the statues erected on battlefield sites. These very imperfect men have been dead for a long time. Leave the statues and monuments be.
I have never read any biography of Robert E. Lee. I am sorry to learn that he was a sometimes cruel slaveowner. Why is there a Robert E. Lee National Memorial? Let the mansion have a different name like Arlington House National Memorial.
Lee was not a slaveowner. Any slaves were from his wife's family. As executor of his father -in - law's estate he freed all slaves within five years per instructions in the will.
No that is completely false. Robert E Lee didn't believe in slavery. He inherited his slaves from his father. His slaves begged him not to sell them. He would "illegally" go to church with his slaves and teach them how to read. They loved him. Do not let this article fool you. It is full of false facts. Do your own research next time.
Why don't you read a biography of Robert E Lee or Thomas Johnathan Stonewall Jackson? You would have a different opinion about these men. Robert E Lee owned slaves that he inherited from his father-in -law and as executor of his his will he freed them 5 years later as the will said to. If Lee's life he owned slaves for 5 years and spent less than 3 years in control of them. Jackson bought 3 slaves after his first wife died in child berth. He had them rent themselves they kept the money for their labor and after the war all three became land owners.
Biased article, had to stop reading after "Lee was a cruel slave owner who took up arms against his own country ". Please first provide REAL facts of how Lee was a cruel slave owner "? You won't be able to because he wasnt . 2nd he didn't take up arms against his country ? The state of Virginia succeded from the union and the south was invaded . Write whatever you want but please be unbiased and factual.
I've read several different biographies of General Lee. Written by Southerners and Northerners. While there's disagreement w/ him over his loyalties, I've never read a single word about him being a " brutal slave owner" . Lee and " Stonewall" Jackson, continually lobbied for the end of slavery and also freed their slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed..both were Christian men who lived in the context of their times and battled against the evils of their times in the ways they thought were right and honorable..their names should not be besmirched by revisionist history....
No Confederate committed treason. The US became singlar instead of plural on July 1 1862. The North wanted to be free of Blacks not free for Blacks. Lincoln invaded for cotton and tariffs not to do Blacks any favors and he didn't. One million Freedmen starved to death under Union Contraband Policy before Confederates were allowed to vote in 1870.
Your comments show a complete lack of understanding of history in general and the civil war in particular, please read a variety of books by different authors and stop judging historical figures by whatever recent indoctrination you received in school, Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest were great men who were complex characters in a difficult period.
Who is to say Lee was a brutal slave owner no one today lived in his time people say things like that to cause trouble and division the monuments and statues need to be left alone or we as a nation will be in another civil war besides we have bigger problems to worry about what do you think would happen if we started calling for statues of MLK to be taken down there is no difference
I m sure you have not read much at all about the Generals or the soldiers of the Confederacy. So you can't be aware that upwards of 80 percent of confederates bought or owned any slaves. What you read about Lee's torment of slaves is something I would like to research that fictional novel, do you have a name of it? I have yet heard from anyone about the fact that slavery began in AFRICA and was a normal part of trade of Africans and you may discover it exists today. As you speak of white supremacy you should also recognize the black supremacists that now are rioting and threatening all whites.
Robert E Lee was asked before he died if he thought confederate monuments should be made, and he said no. I take the Indiana Jones approach to these monuments, they belong in a museum.
I suggest reading Robert E Lee's biography. I understand he freed his slaves at the start of war. They were inherented through his wife.
Anyone that equates Robert E. Lee to Adolf Hitler is showing nothing but a total ignorance of history.
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