The conversation about Confederate statues in the United States is highly charged, as recent events in Charlottesville, VA have shown.
I absolutely agree with The Hill:
“Please don’t direct the discussion towards the ownership of slaves. Then we just get into the argument that people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. That’s not the point! Washington and Jefferson are well known in history from the beginnings of our country. [General] Robert E. Lee was a traitor to his country. These monuments were constructed well before African-Americans were permitted to vote, and they are only a reminder that racism still exists.”
But, as The Week notes in How America forgot the true history of the Civil War: “Ex-Confederates and associated sympathizers began to think up alternative histories that sounded better [than slavery], starting right after the war ended. The major plank of this was the ‘Lost Cause,’ which argued that the war was not actually about slavery — instead, it was about ‘states’ rights.’
“The antebellum South was cast as a sepia-toned paradise of noble gentlemen, virtuous ladies, and happy slaves.” John Oliver reveals The Ugly Reality Behind The ‘Lost Cause’ Cult.
In other words, the Confederate memorials were an attempt to erase history, as this southern white male and this one note.
Most of those statues were erected during the Jim Crow era before and after World War I, after the re-imposition of white supremacy. As Smithsonian magazine makes clear, We Legitimize the ‘So-Called’ Confederacy With Our Vocabulary, and That’s a Problem. “Tearing down monuments is only the beginning to understanding the false narrative of Jim Crow.
More than 4,000 black people were lynched in the South — where are their monuments?
To understand how toxic the period was, read Before its subversion in the Jim Crow era, the fruit symbolized black self-sufficiency. So, what changed? And Lynching and Antilynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s.
Robert E. Lee was NOT “invariably kind and humane” to the people he enslaved, despite scuttlebutt of his benevolence. Here’s W.E.B. DuBois on Robert E. Lee. My fellow TU blogger Rob Hoffman noted:”The last thing we need in our divided nation is to excuse the behavior of a man, even one as talented as Robert E. Lee, for betraying his country at a time when it really needed him most.”
Moreover, Lee himself said: “I think it wiser …not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”
I’d like to see some of those statues in museums, where context can be explained. Listen to the semi-comedic The Ballad Of General Robert E. Lee’s Statue.
Wonderful analysis of history.
I was in New Orleans for the first time a few years ago and saw a few of these confederate statues and they were disturbing because they “characters” were all taught in history to be the bad guys, so my gut reaction was that it didn’t make sense that they were there. but they are history, and they are art works commissioned of and by someone. so they belong in museums, but there don’t see m to be any plans. just mayhem.
I am afraid that we won’t live to see racism being erased from our memories, lives and historie… I think… historie, the truth of it, should be told as a tool to learn from…
But still, knowing who one of the most powerfull men of this world is right now.. I am and I stay scared for the future of all
I am conflicted on this issue however thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Ann
I agree with what written in The Hill, too.
Wonderful post ~ My opinion is at the heart of the matter is ‘elitism’ ~ We are all equal and the more society begins to espouse that in whatever way is possible ~ then, so be it.
Happy Weekend coming up,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Once when I was in the States a “friend” was ranting about blacks and asked me “where did they come from anyway ??” I was startled ! Did he think they grew on a field ? I think he slept through his whole school years !
Lee also refused to participate in commemorations of the Confederacy. Several letters exist where he turned down invitations and explained in detail why he refused.