Robert E Lee The Great Emancipator

[tblunk]

(06-10-2013 12:57 AM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 08:30 PM)tblunk Wrote:  "The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically."

Was the above statement by Lee, true at the time he made it? Blacks don't have it so good in Africa even now, and much of it is due to black-on-black violence and hatred.

By whose measure? When my great great granddad used a horse to pull his plow, was that horse better off than if it could run wild and free on the great plains? It probably ate better and lived longer.

It's at least a self-serving justification.

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(06-09-2013 09:54 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Liz, I just don't get your point, in my mind there is no comparison (warning - the images below are very graphic)

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The point was supposed to be (I think) that Lee wasn't responsible for the Emancipation Proclamation, just as Hitler wasn't responsible for creating the state of Israel. Not that Lee was like Hitler, or Slavery like genocide. Those are "hot-button" comparisons that cloud the issue. Whether the comparison was purposely provocative, I don't know.

One could just as easily say that Eisenhower was responsible for my brother's broken neck because Ike "created" the Interstate Highway System. I wouldn't be comparing Lee to Eisenhower, or a car wreck to slavery.