We always have controversial issues that arise. Like meteorites, they blaze briefly, then vanish quickly and are replaced by other ones. They are called flash points. It can be helpful to look at those when time has passed. We can then gain additional facts and be more objective.
Our attention quickly shifts to newer issues! Abortion, book banning, Covid-19, election denials, removing Confederate generals’ names from military bases, vaccines, and fluoridation of city water are controversial issues that captivate our attention.
Leila Markosis, Kristen Shavaredias, and Alexandria Levey wrote, “Americans have continually engaged in cultural clashes over the production and dissemination of ideas, art, and knowledge.” They further wrote, “Flashpoints will bring tensions, contradictions, and benefits” (PEN American and the American Historical Association, March 29, 2022).
Disputes surrounding Confederate statues and monuments have sometimes been quite emotional. Can we examine these with objectivity? Those statues are essentially monuments to a lost cause. They are unique because it is not typical for a defeated nation to be allowed to erect statues and monuments to its military leaders. You will not see statues of Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler, or Erwin Rommel in Germany. Japan has no monuments for Haikyuu Yamamoto or Emperor Hirohito, neither are military bases named after them.
I would like us to consider a Confederate General whose monuments are prominent all through the South; Robert E. Lee mounted on his beloved horse, Traveller. His image carved into Stone Mountain, Georgia, is 60 feet tall. This is the site where the Ku Klux Klan originated (kqed.org/ lowdown/19119/stone-mountains- hidden-history-americas- biggest-confederate-memorial- and-birthplace-of-themodern- ku-klux-klan).
While researching General Lee’s military career, I came upon a gap of two years. What happened during that mysterious absence? The discoveries led me to reassess all I thought I knew about him.
Robert E. Lee grew up on a plantation in Virginia, attended West Point, and graduated second in his class with the exceptional record of having never received one single demerit.
Lee married Mary Custis Washington, the great-granddaughter of First Lady Martha Washington. Mary was raised under the care of her older enslaved half-sister. After their marriage, Robert E. Lee executed his deceased father-inlaw’s will, giving him the plantation, Arlington House, and two hundred slaves. Lee took a leave of absence from the army for more than two years to manage the plantation (nps. gov/museum/exhibits/arho/ Robert_E_LEEchronology. pdf).
Mr. Custis stated in his will that his slaves were to be emancipated after five years. They misunderstood and believed they would be freed when Mr. Custis died, but that did not happen. Three of them, Reuben, Parks, and Edward, rebelled and refused Lee’s orders. He had them put in jail. Two months later, he sent them and three female slaves to be sold by the slave-trader William Overton Winston (nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/ an-unpleasant-legacy. htm).
Three other plantation slaves, Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin fled for the North but were recaptured and brought back to the plantation (nps).
The following report by Wesley Norris appeared in the spring, 1866, issue of The National Anti-Slavery Standard: “When we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty, we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to lay it on well, and injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done” (nps).
Would there be objections if statues of Robert E. Lee as a slave owner were displayed, standing by while Mary, his runaway female slave, is tied to a post, and at his urging, twenty vicious lashes rain down on her naked back? Might that affect the way people view the statues in his Confederate General’s uniform astride his magnificent horse?
As the Civil War was looming, President Lincoln urged General Lee to stay with the Union, but he relinquished his commission, went to Virginia, and joined the Confederacy instead. His military leadership is unrivaled. We might be singing “Dixie” instead of the “Star-Spangled Banner” if General Lee had had enough resources.
Robert E. Lee has this redeeming quality: In August of 1865, he became President of Washington College. He brought it from being near bankruptcy to a thriving institution with innovative policies. It welcomed students from the North and the South. He inaugurated a program of journalism that helped graduates find good careers and brought changes in how news was printed and distributed. After Lee’s death, it was renamed Washington and Lee College.
We do not know now what controversial flash points will arise in the future, but others will surely come. If we cannot be impartial, then perhaps we can be tolerant, gather information, and look at both sides of an issue. Being guided only by our emotions will not bring healing solutions, but cooler heads can work to resolve an impasse when it arises.