how robert e. lee treated his slaves

Lee was no fire-eater, but that doesn't mean he was anti-slavery. In fact evidence suggests that he was an unusually cruel enslaver.

[thesoldier]

Meanwhile before the civil war U.S. Grant was destitute and was given a slave from a family member so he could sell him. He immediately freed the slave instead

[standngbidness]

props to this guy for emphasizing "people" and not just saying "slaves". really drives the level of inhumanity home

[Gomjibar]

Lee's army when they invaded Pennsylvania also captured free blacks and sold them into slavery, and Lee didn't stop this. I rarely see this brought up by any historian.

[alexandramarberry]

Fun fact about George Washington's slave owning prowess: when the national capitol moved to Philadelphia, he took many of his slaves with him to serve in his household. But Pennsylvania actually had a law that freed slaves of non-resident visitors after they were in the state for 6 months. So he would just rotate his slaves out of state every 6 months to avoid the losses to his personal net worth. There were zero good slave owners.

[LoneWolf]

Lee was such a hard slaveowner that be made the news for it. A local newspaper reported on his personally beating a handful of slaves that had failed an escape attempt, after his slave driver refused to do it, and the beating was so brutal that it shocked his community.

[michaelhorning]

Grant briefly owned one slave given to him by his father-in-law. The slave worked the farm side by side with Grant and ate at the family table. Grant freed the man rather than sell him, at a time when the farm had failed and he was short of money.

[InShane]

Lee say "slavery is an evil" not because he thought was bad. But because he didnt like how it made HIM act. He was just as racist as anyone else of the time. He just didnt like the reality that slaves weren't obeident unconditionally.

Infact he was SUPPOSED to free all of his father in laws slaves per his will but kept putting it off. Then got furious when they tried to leave. (His father in law told them they were free upon his death)

[vincentprincipato]

Love it when the justification for owning slaves is how you “treat” them. - like property, not humans.

[robertmatch]

A quote from the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: He is writing about his meeting with Lee at Appomatox: "I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."

[nateds]

One time the guy gave his slaves 50 lashes as a punishment. For perspective, at the time 30 lashes would have been considered a pretty brutal punishment. This treatment was so horrifying that some of his slave drivers, men whose entire living was made in beating men and women like animals, refused to do it.

So you can't say that you "can't judge him by today's standards, it was a long time ago". People at the time thought this was excessively cruel, it made the local paper.

[dante]

Grant was a "slave owner" in the context his father In law gifted him a slave which grant despite being broke, freed the slave

[mackjarvis]

Let’s just hope we don’t forget this history. This stuff must be remembered and not rewritten.

[richardpomelear]

"Lee personally owned people..."

It's weird how much worse this sounds than "owned slaves." Like the very word slave still has a dehumanizing effect on the conversation.

[joeevans]

Posting old checkmate clips…..It’s coming soon

[TheBlasphemite]

i feel this argument falls apart when it's like this: "i treat my *slaves* right!"

yeah, what word did you describe them as?

[shellnet]

In grade school so before I was 10, we learned about the fugitive slave act and Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad we also learned about the trail of tears before I was even 10. I knew that America was a monstrous place, but we also learned that we had come far with the civil rights movement and we were encouraged that even though we are not there yet we the kids need to get us there. They left it as a battle for us to fight if I was able to get the resources to do as they promised us to do. They told us what was our duty. We are to end this last battle of the American Revolution.

[Chazman]

I am a direct descent of Robert E. Lee and of a person who was enslaved by his family (the story goes that we are descendants of a “relationship” between he and a woman who was enslaved by him). I recently had someone try to explain to me how good he was to his slaves. My response was, “if he was so good to them, then he wouldn’t have ENSLAVED them in the first place.” He did not like that answer. Think I’ll show him this video next time I see him… 😐

[keystonecomet]

Jefferson also held slaves and advocated abolition. He notoriously freed his children when his babymomma threatened not to go back to america when he took her to France, since she was feee there. His slaves were not even freed in his will. Washington also held slaves until his death. Many examples of folks taking advantage of the system in place, while also advocating the end of the system.

[micnak]

Painting Lee as a saint became a thing to do in the South after the Civil War. For many diehard Confederate fans, saying anything negative about Lee is a taboo to this day. In academia, it's called the Lost Cause School of Interpretation (of the Civil War), and its hold on the Southerners is still very tight.

[ssjgreensamurai]

One thing my mom told me was "you can think someone is a human while not thinking they are equal to you"