this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
401 points (97.0% liked)
A Comm for Historymemes
3046 readers
1174 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @[email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Fun fact: Robert E. Lee was one, of many, of the Confederate leaders that recognized the deep harm they caused the nation, and thus he specifically wrote in his diary and will, that no statue, memorial, or song should ever commemorate his traitorous actions.
Then Wilson became president and refounded the KKK, erected a fuckton of Confederate statues, segregated the federal government for the first time in history, and generally shat on as many brown people as he could.
More white washing of the Bobby Lee legacy. https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/editorial/lost-cause-myth-modern-whitewashing-robert-e-lee-influences-racial-politics-milwaukee/
Interesting that your extremely northern source just repeated everything I just said. After the confederacy lost, many of them recognized the mistakes they made. I have no love for the traitors that made the confederacy. I do recognize the difference between a poor loser like Drumpf, and a man that recognized that he did wrong in his own lifetime, and attempted to fix it after the fact.
While Lee did publicly repent, there's a nonzero chance that he did so because at the time the Lost Cause hadn't hit full swing - Lee died in 1870, after all - and because there were still a very large number of radical Republicans quite literally calling for Lee to be hanged, even despite Johnson's amnesty.
He may have genuinely morally repented, or he may have (more likely in my eyes) simply seen no reason to continue fighting a (ha) lost cause with no hope of victory after the fall of the CSA, but he also may have just been trying to keep his head down to avoid personal trouble. Like Forrest suddenly swearing up-and-down that he was a good and peaceful citizen once it became clear that the Federal government was going to crack down on protofascist fucks.
You really cherry picked that and out of contexted it. He never repented and was a life long racist.
You're putting words in my mouth that were never there. You're the one perpetuating class distinctions, when neither I, nor Robert Lee, made any such distinctions with that particular directive.
Whether or not Robert Lee was a racist bigot isn't in discussion. He recognized he did wrong against his country and, for once, he apologized.
The fact that he was a racist bigot honestly doesn't need to be addressed since it is assumed that everyone was. Especially when you realize that Teddy fucking Roosevelt was an extremely progressive racist bigot nearly 25 years later, and he is revered as one of the most progressive presidents in history.