Tourists in front of a statue of General Lee, at the Capitol in Washington, USA, August 17, 2017(MARK WILSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
The commander of the Confederate troops was above all a great soldier, venerated by his soldiers. But as leader of the armies of the slave states during the Civil War (1861-1865), it has now become a very cumbersome symbol
Lee was neither a fervent supporter of slavery, nor a quasi-abolitionist, as his thurifiers sometimes put it, citing a sentence from a letter to his wife: "Slavery" is "moral and political evil in Any country, "writes Lee in this letter of December 27, 1856 (before the Civil War). "The blacks," he continues, "are immeasurably better here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically, and the painful education they are undergoing is necessary for their education and their race. Their emancipation will result more quickly from the gentle and unifying influence of Christianity than from the storms and storms of violent controversy. "
Qui était le général Lee, le Sudiste devenu l'icône de l'extrême droite américaine ?