The Truth About Robert E. Lee
By Gib Kerr
September 14, 2024
Over a relatively short span of time, Robert E. Lee went from being one of the most admired figures in American history to being one of the most despised. Hatred for Lee heated up with the Charlottesville riots in 2017, then reached a boiling point in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020 when angry mobs condemned Lee as a racist defender of slavery and a traitor.
Lee’s name became synonymous with white supremacy and has now been removed from military bases, schools, streets, and even Lee Chapel where he is entombed on the campus of Washington and Lee University.
But as an alumnus of W&L who has studied Lee my whole life, I
know the truth about Lee, and I wanted to share his story because I
think it will surprise the average reader.
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Southerners should never be embarrassed for admiring Lee. We need not apologize. But given the gross misunderstandings about Lee, we do need to work harder to tell his story.
The truth is that Lee was opposed to slavery. He called it a “moral and political evil.” After the war he said that he “rejoiced” that slavery had been abolished, and that he would gladly have suffered all that he suffered and lost all that he lost in the war to see slavery abolished.
Lee was opposed to secession before the war. He held out hope to the very end that the Union could be preserved. But things changed when Lincoln announced plans to raise an army of 75,000 soldiers to invade the South and to put down the rebellion. Lincoln offered Lee command of that army, and Lee politely declined because he could not take part in an invasion of his home state of Virginia. At the time, Lee said that, if he owned all the slaves in the South, he would willingly give them up to save the Union.
Lee believed that it was his duty to defend Virginia, even though he was opposed to Virginia’s seceding. He was not motivated to defend slavery.
After the war, Lee was a leading voice for reconciliation. He worked tirelessly to restore peace and harmony between the North and South. Even though he lost everything in the war, he was not embittered.
Those are the basic facts—the truth—about Lee. But modern academics are rewriting and erasing our past. They too often weaponize history for political purposes, dividing America along the Marxist lines of oppressed and oppressor.
George Orwell understood the importance of history when he said, “Who controls the past controls the future.” And America’s past is incomplete—and greatly diminished—without Robert E. Lee.
Lee was the perfect balance of the softer character traits of humility, kindness, and piety and the more manly virtues of courage, strength, honor, and integrity. He was the man that every Southern male aspired to be, and the son that every Southern mother hoped to raise. He was the very embodiment of virtue.
America needs character, honor, and virtue now more than ever. Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
By erasing Robert E. Lee, cancel culture has erased perhaps America’s greatest example of virtue. We need heroes of noble character like Lee for our children and grandchildren to emulate. But cancel culture is systematically targeting and eliminating our heroes.
Cancel culture is all about tearing things down. It is inherently destructive. It builds nothing. It creates nothing. It only destroys. Like the Vandals who destroyed Rome, it is destroying American culture. It’s fueled by anger, bitterness, envy, and vindictiveness. It rejects the Western and Christian notions of grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation. In its place, it promotes violence, terror, intimidation, intolerance, and retribution.
In the end, though, cancel culture only creates a void. Who does cancel culture propose to fill that void?
Popular culture today tends to demonize all Confederates. But not all Confederates were bad. Nor were all Union soldiers saints. Neither side had a monopoly on virtue.
The prevailing and over-simplified narrative among historians today
is that the war was fought solely to end slavery. This narrative
condemns Lee as a defender of slavery. But in his inaugural address,
Lincoln claimed that he had no intention to end slavery. In fact, he
admitted that he did not have the constitutional authority to end
slavery even if he wanted to. His priority was to save the Union. And
Lee’s priority was to defend Virginia.
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Was Lee a traitor? If so, why was he never prosecuted for treason? Why were no Confederates—not even Jefferson Davis—ever tried for treason? Did states have the right to secede? The Constitution is silent on the subject. Southerners like Lee believed that their first loyalty was to their states, regardless of their individual views on slavery and secession.
Lee is often attacked as a symbol of the so-called Lost Cause movement that sought to glorify the Confederacy and, many claim, was used to perpetuate racial apartheid in the Jim Crow South. The lynchings, segregation, and racism of the old South occurred decades after Lee had died, and Lee had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. As someone who has studied Lee exhaustively, I can say with absolute certainty that Lee would have rejected white supremacy and cannot be blamed for things that happened so many years after his death.
Lee’s final years at Washington College were arguably his finest. Although he had lost everything and suffered immeasurably, he was not embittered. He carried on with dignity and grace. He often quoted Marcus Aurelius’ meditation, “Misfortune nobly borne is good fortune.” He bore his misfortune with remarkable nobility, and his good fortune today is that we continue to celebrate his enduring legacy.
My hope is that Lee’s example of honor and character can and will be resurrected to inspire future generations of Americans the same way it inspired me.
Gib Kerr is the author of States of Rebellion and Un-Cancel Robert E. Lee. Visit his website at www.gibkerr.com.
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