Prometheus 6

The most hate mail I ever received was, pre-blogging days, when I pointed out on a history Listserv that Robert E. Lee, personal probity and military genius notwithstanding, was a traitor. And here I thought that was a simple statement of fact " levying war " clause and all. Well, some ppl on the List who had liked a lot of what I had previously written went completely nuts.

I got into a brief flame battle on a newsgroup once with a (white, Tennessee) woman who insisted that the Civil War wasn't about defending slavery, it was about *economics*. ??? I went to h.s. in the South, after integration, and I'd never heard such a crazy rationalization.

My mother, the (white) Southerner who went to jail after a lunch counter sit-in, explained that this was the line she was taught in school in the 1950s. She remembered her history teacher, Miss B---, saying exactly that. This is how many white people in the South justified (justify?) the Civil War. Not all white people, of course - see my mother & her Methodist, NAACP-supporting friends.

Lee was a traitor. So was Washington et al. Whether someone is a traitor or not depends on where your loyalties lie.

By the way, Leila: since their economy was based on slavery I'd accept your friend's statement with little comment. Maybe I'd note that the North was fighting secession not slavery. Maybe not.