Fascinating book on R.E. Lee

[TerryB]

I didn't realize that was in question. He thought slavery was unpleasant, and would hopefully someday be ended by God, but that God decreed that the slaves be in bondage now so they would improve as a race. Or something like that. However, you did say that Lee could have ended his difficulties with the Custis slaves by simply freeing them, which I'm afraid was just not the case.

He is as tall or as short as he ever was, Terry. The only people whose height has changed are yourself and the folks who tried to build Lee into something he wasn't.

I'm a firm believer in redemption. If the story is true that he stood up in church and was the first to come forward and welcome a black man who wanted to be free to worship in a white church--if that story is true, then Lee has redeemed himself. Attitudes evolve, and I expect his did. Pryor's book isn't the only filter I see him through, but I'm just saying it was a shock to the system to have so much pre-war evidence come to light. I think Pryor might illustrate something my 11th grade English teacher said. I don't know who she was quoting, but she said, "A Romantic calls a spade an instrument for turning the bosom of the earth. A Realist calls a spade a spade, and a Naturalist calls it a G.D. shovel." I can't buy into the romanticism of Lee and that's a lot like finding out the truth about Santa Claus. We don't dis our kids for being disappointed or disillusioned. We just hope they move on. I'm movin' on. Been nice talkin' to ya.

 

[K Hale]

I was never encouraged to believe in Santa; it was always understood within my family to be a fun gag everybody played around with at Christmas. Maybe that trained me to see people as just people. That doesn't mean they can't be great people. A spade is an instrument for turning the bosom of the earth. That doesn't mean it's not a spade.

 

[matthew mckeon]

The Custis will stated that Lee had five years to free the Custis slaves. He could have freed them at any time. However, the estate was in difficulties and he wanted to extract as much value from the slaves as he could.

Pryor makes the point that Lee personally disliked being a slaveowner. He dislked practicing slavery. For nearly his entire life, Lee was a professional army officer and engineer, as Pryor notes, he had the virtures of a middle class Victorian gentleman/professional, rather than the character of grandee planter/slaveholder.

 

[matthew mckeon]

I don't have an endless amount of patience with the "they all thought it was OK' argument. A lot of white people didn't think it was OK. I imagine that a lot of the slaves thought they had the sucky end of the stick as well.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Pryor has a nice bit of summation, in trying to understand Lee and what he means, and can mean today. "He failed, without becoming a failure."

 

[K Hale]

The Custis will stated that Lee had five years to free the Custis slaves. He could have freed them at any time. However, the estate was in difficulties and he wanted to extract as much value from the slaves as he could.

If he didn't, the will could not be carried out. Money had to be raised to carry out the part of the will that dictated that Lee's four daughters receive their inheritances.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Freeing people vs. money for his kids. When you frame it like that, it still stinks. But that's slaveowning. Every slaveowner had to be a little bit Simon Legree.

 

[K Hale]

Freeing people vs. money for his kids.

One's illegal and one's not. Step into his shoes and make the choice.

 

[larry_cockerham]

I was never encouraged to believe in Santa; it was always understood within my family to be a fun gag everybody played around with at Christmas. Maybe that trained me to see people as just people. That doesn't mean they can't be great people. A spade is an instrument for turning the bosom of the earth. That doesn't mean it's not a spade.

Santa Claus lives, sure as there's a cow in Texas. The catch is that he's a mite hard to spot in the photograph.

 

[Karen Lips]

Of all the books that have been written on Lee I think the best is the one that was never written, and that is Lee's autobiography. Would he have eventually written his memoirs if he had lived longer is something we will never know.