ON MONDAY, October 17, 1859 in Arlington, Virginia Colonel Robert E. Lee was "working on the financial accounts of his late father-in-law, George Washington Custis" who had died and left Lee executor of his "unprofitable and entangled mess" of an estate.
Of course that estate would later become our nation's most sacred burial ground, Arlington National Cemetery.
Lee was surprised to see Lieutenant James E. B. "Jeb" Stuart who was not clean shaven as he had been in the 1850s at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when Lee was superintendent and Stuart was one of his favorite cadets.1
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Nobody told me it wasn't about slavery. In fact , the answer to the question What caused the civil war, in my history classes in Odessa Texas was Slavery. But years later it just clicked. The Emancipation Proclamation came well after the war started. Wouldn't that have been on the table at the beginning if slavery was The issue? I did talk to people, occasionally I would stumble across someone who would say that legislation was being used to mistreat the southern states. Over the years I concluded it was not about slavery. And the pedestal that Lincoln has been put on is undeserved. Quite the opposite. The outcome was a nation, but United? Meh. Only speculation about how America would look today had the South been allowed to peacefully withdraw from the abusive relationship being states of a union that had ceased to offer the mutually beneficial relationship that they signed up for. My SIL insists it was treason to try to secede. I told him that is not true. When each state joined the union they were told how it would be good for them, for their people.. And those promises were broken. It became an abusive, one way relationship that they wanted out of.
ReplyDeleteTreason
ˈtrēzən]
NOUN
the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
"they were convicted of treason"
There's no betrayal in walking away.
Slavery would have died out. The industrial Revolution was coming.
Had the Southern States, which were Not the only states where slavery was practiced, had been allowed to peacefully withdraw, the union could have been repaired later.
And, if it was about slavery, then why would men who didn't own slaves go fight, only to risk life and limb,when the Best they could hope for was to go back home and go back to farming? Who would go to war to keep a competitor in a comfortable place? If you were busting your ass ,doing all the work, and the guy down the road had six or eight slaves, would you go to war to help Him keep his slaves?
ReplyDeleteThe Picture of Southern Society that was presented kinda made it seem like everyone had slaves. Not only is that not true, but I'm not convinced it was even almost a majority.
And, somehow the black landowners were overlooked in history classes, as were black slave owners.
Why did they teach me lies?
Good questions and analysis of the subject. Thanks.
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