Robert E. Lee Was A Horrible Racist

The myth of Robert E. Lee every bit the "Noble Confederate General" is non dissimilar the myth of Erwin Rommel every bit the "Noble Nazi General." After a nation of war is over, in that place has to hold upwardly some reconciliation betwixt onetime enemies, together with i mode to produce that is past times picking someone on the losing side every bit a heroic warrior unsullied past times what the nation of war was genuinely about.

There is no doubt, though, that Lee was a despicable person. Set aside the fact (if yous want) that he owned slaves together with led the military machine endeavor (sometimes brilliantly) to salvage that evil system. Maybe he recanted afterward the nation of war ended together with became a amend man.

Er . . . no.  Here is a relevant component subdivision of his 1866 testimony to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which wrote the Fourteenth Amendment:

Question:  What is your thought almost its existence an wages to Virginia to decease along them in that place at all. Do yous non intend that Virginia would hold upwardly amend off if the colored population were to become to Alabama, Louisiana, together with the other southern States? 
Answer. I intend it would hold upwardly amend for Virginia if she could larn rid of them. That is no novel thought amongst me.
. . . 
Question. Do yous non intend that the State of Virginia is absolutely injured together with its futurity impaired past times the presence of the dark population there? 
Answer. I intend it is. 
Question. And produce yous non intend it is specially adapted to the lineament of project which would menstruum into it, from its nifty natural resources, inwards illustration it was made to a greater extent than attractive past times the absence of the colored race? 
Answer: I do.
To paraphrase our electrical current President, Lee was an evil loser.

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