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Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause QUOTES

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause QUOTES

1 " When people have no political outlet nor means of changing a racist society, rioting is their only voice. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

2 " While Lee believed in slavery, he also profited from it far more than other army colonels. At the age of twenty-four, two years after graduating from West Point, Lee married Mary Custis, the only child of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of George Washington. Custis earned his money through inheritance, and that inherited wealth derived from the work of enslaved labor. Enslaved labor created much of his wealth including the prestigious, Doric-columned Arlington House with its commanding view of the capital. Custis owned two other enslaved labor farms—Romancoke and White House.

A year after marrying Mary Custis, Lee inherited enslaved workers from his mother’s estate. During his many years in the army, Lee hired out those enslaved workers and pocketed the profit, creating wealth. By the time he wrote his only will as a U.S. Army officer in 1846 as he headed to fight in Mexico, he estimated his net worth at $40,000 in stocks, bonds, and property, including enslaved workers, or more than $1.3 million today. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

3 " Officers like Braxton Bragg and Jefferson Davis left the army to seek their fortunes with enslaved labor farms, but Lee was the only senior officer who was actually in charge of hundreds of enslaved workers and in the U.S. Army in 1861. By the time he chose succession, Lee identified far more with the southern slaveholding class than he did with his fellow officers. He certainly spent more time managing enslaved workers than he did leading soldiers. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

4 " Whenever Lee made a decision regarding enslaved people he chose profit over human decency. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

5 " With the number of accusations of harassment and assault leveled at Washington College men, Lee used a light disciplinary touch around racial intimidation, attacks, and sexual violence, even though he was known for a heavy hand in less serious incidents. Lee did not consider African Americans worthy of protection. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

6 " Racism is the virus in the American dirt, infecting everything and everyone. To combat racism, we must do more than acknowledge the long history of white supremacy. Policies must change. Yet, an understanding of history remains the foundation. The only way to prevent a racist future is to first understand our racist past. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

7 " Racism is not only morally wrong, but fiscally stupid.9 "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

8 " In the aftermath of the war, Virginia led the South in creating and maintaining a police state based on racial control. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

9 " Racism isn’t just morally wrong; it’s economically stupid. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

10 " History is always changing. We link the past to our conception of the present and we always have. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

11 " During the bloodiest war in American history, Lee and his comrades killed more U.S. Army soldiers than any other enemy, ever. And they did it for the worst reason possible: to create a nation dedicated to exploit enslaved men, women, and children, forever. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

12 " The only way to prevent our racist future is to understand our racist past. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

13 " Now that we can acknowledge the facts, our conversation can be grounded in reality, not myth and not ideology. An important point to remember is that we don't own the actions of people who lived in the 1860s or the 1930s. But we do have a responsibility to acknowledge the past, to acknowledge the facts. The past does not have to control us, especially if we understand it. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

14 " It is no coincidence that most Confederate monuments went up between 1890 and 1920, the same period that lynching peaked in the South. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

15 " It bears repeating. Georgia was a racial police state, not a democracy. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

16 " The only way to argue for slavery, then or now, is to believe that the enslaved weren’t real human beings. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

17 " The late Tony Horwitz, the author of the brilliant book Confederates in the Attic, called Lexington “the second city of Confederate remembrance: Medina to Richmond’s Mecca. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

18 " When we identify our history, we can change the narrative. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

19 " lieutenant colonel. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

20 " History is dangerous. It forms our identity, our shared story. If someone challenges a sacred myth, the reaction can be ferocious. "

― Ty Seidule , Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause