It's absolutely true. The Lee family wasn't destitute, but they weren't wealthy barons, either. Robert E. Lee neither owned nor inherited any slaves during his lifetime. If anything, those slaves were deemed dower slaves of his wife, but even then, his father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis (the step grandson of George fricking Washington), freed his slaves in his will, upon his death in 1857 - and Lee as administrator of the will manumitted those slaves in accordance with those instructions.

quote:
For the record. I have no problem with him owning the slaves.

That's hypothetical, because not only did Lee not own slaves, he wasn't particularly crazy about the institution, nor was his wife (whose family actually owned the slaves). This was the Virginia tradition and they were deeply, deeply conflicted about the whole affair.

quote:
Just don't try to cover it up.

Nobody is covering up anything.

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Posted by Obtuse1

Westside Bodymore Yo

Member since Sep 2016

26008 posts

Posted on 4/23/18 at 7:52 pm to Ace Midnight

I'm not a statue person but I have an etching of The Last Meeting by Julio in my home office. When I was a senior in college the original (which in the frame is about 20 feet high) was in my college's admissions building for a few months. It is now in the Museum of the Confederacy.

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Posted by Obtuse1

Westside Bodymore Yo

Member since Sep 2016

26008 posts

Posted on 4/23/18 at 8:13 pm to Ace Midnight

quote:
It's absolutely true. The Lee family wasn't destitute, but they weren't wealthy barons, either. Robert E. Lee neither owned nor inherited any slaves during his lifetime

You are most likely wrong, having matriculated at a good Southern private institution of higher learning which believed in the cause enough to sink almost all their rather substantial endowment of $100,000 into Confederate war bonds discussion and research about the South's favorite son and general were quit popular.

Going from memory:

While his mother itemized the bequests of her estate to her daughter the remainder of the estate was left to the three brothers and the mother owned slaves at her death but fewer than earlier. Lee detailed in correspondence with his brothers that he owned two women and their children. There is also the older black man that was with Lee at his first posting somewhere in GA, IIRC, which was almost surely a slave.

Lee almost certainly owned slaves prior to marriage.

This post was edited on 4/23/18 at 8:36 pm

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Posted by fightin tigers

Downtown Prairieville

Member since Mar 2008

73729 posts

Posted on 4/23/18 at 9:01 pm to Ace Midnight

quote:
George Washington Parke Custis (the step grandson of George fricking Washington), freed his slaves in his will, upon his death in 1857 - and Lee as administrator of the will manumitted those slaves in accordance with those instructions.

Again....stretching the truth

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Posted by Jimmydatiger