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I can think of no other country that has statues of those who committed treason and were consider traitors. The confederates do have a place in our history but there proper place is in museums. I view Robert E. Lee in the same way as I view Erwin Rommel. They both did what there nation required of them and were brilliant at what they did. Lee fought for the south because he was southerner not because of slavery. Rommel fought for Germany but was not a Nazi. The both fought for unjust causes which means they should displayed in museums not public squares. If you do your research you will find that the erection of most confederate statues had little to do honoring these men. Most of these statues were erected 50 years after the war. I don't agree with mobs taking them down but they should be removed and placed in museums were they belong. Again the south committed treason which baffles me as to why they should be held in high regard.
It’s not MLK. It’s just a statue. I wouldn’t cheer them on but I wouldn’t lose sleep over it or poutrage online about it.
Easy to say when it's not actually happening. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like mobs who denigrate all black people and tear down every monument to a black person.
Treat them them the way the Germans treat Nazi iconography. And there's a place for some of them in museums with full context provided. Pulling them down just riles up half the country and gets them foaming at the mouth. So I voted for removal via a legal process.
A related issue is - Do Confederate statues promote racism or a hostile environment towards black people today?
Obviously, this is the main reason that some of the “protesters” have been going after these statues.
Is it fair to judge the Confederacy based on the values we hold today or should we understand it in the context of what society valued in the mid-19th century?
I don't know why we are re-litigating this issue today. People chose their sides, a long and bloody war was fought. People came back together as a single country.
It's American history. Some of those confederates fought later for America. A lot of their Descendents fought for America in subsequent wars and served in the military in times of peace.
No reason for it to be controversial today. It's just evil people trying to divide us when there is no reason anymore.
The south is hooked on to the confederacy as if that’s all they have - that and slavery. They have fallen to the trap of defining the region by association with the failed Confederate cause. It is almost a bunker mentality. They have much more than that. They have the best beaches in the country, some of the best food, great music, interesting cities—why care about the confederacy or the statues? They would be better off if they shook off that identity.
But a statue of some general riding a horse doesn't educate anybody. It only serves to glorify the person and, by extension, the cause he fought for.
Not true at all. Statues are erected for all kinds of reasons. They are educational for the intellectually curious. They are for reflection, remembrance and reconciliation.
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Originally Posted by VA Yankee
They represent those that committed treason and lost its time for them to go to a museum or the scrap heap whatever the community decides. Their placement has been a detrimental symbol for blacks and represent the old times that are best forgotten.
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Originally Posted by banjomike
How far have we come when we are still fighting over slavery 150 years afterward?
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Originally Posted by natalie469
Why are we honoring those who wanted the confederate states of American instead of the United States of America.
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Originally Posted by Grainraiser
I can think of no other country that has statues of those who committed treason and were consider traitors.
I lumped these together because they are so wrong. No one was ever tried for treason for being a member of the Confederacy. In fact President A. Johnson issued two general pardons and amnesties that covered virtually every member of the CSA.
The Civil War was unique in that it was neighbor against neighbor. Many of the generals from both sides were close friends. There was some lingering bitterness among some people, but the WHOLE POINT was they'd just fought this war to KEEP these people as fellow citizens of the United States. It was widely recognized that there had to be reconciliation. And there was. Until just recently. People are using excuses of what happened 150 years ago to drive a 21st Century political agenda.
In 1970 an archivist at the National Archives discovered Robert E. Lee's signed Amnesty Oath among State Department records. It appeared Lee's request to restore his citizenship hadn't been acted on before his 1870 death. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 402 to 10 to restore Lee's citizenship.
President Gerald Ford, in a ceremony to formally restore Lee's citizenship said, "General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride."
So all this garbage you are hearing now it just that, garbage in furtherance of an agenda.
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Originally Posted by Bureaucat
The reason most of the statues were erected was to celebrate the return of control to the white neo-Confederates after the removal of federal troops ended Reconstruction. They were to serve as a reminder to the blacks that white supremacy still reigned in the South. That time has past, and just as their erections were symbolic, their removals are symbolic that that era is finally behind us.
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Originally Posted by jencam
They are not relics of the Confederacy, the majority were put up as a response to the civil rights movement. They are monuments to white supremacy and to me, they should never have been put up and should go.
It was neither. The monuments and statues were put up for a variety of reasons over a 100 year span. Often it was to commemorate an anniversary date of a battle.
In any case, this notion that they were put up to intimidate people or that they were symbols of hate is pure bunk. People had long since reconciled their feelings.
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Originally Posted by Feltdesigner
I support the forceful removal of them by mobs. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
Then you support lawlessness and anarchy. The cautionary tale is the French Revolution, where many supporters of it later became victims of it. No one should embrace mob violence and think it will spare them.
I own a confederate flag and belt buckle. I obtained these a few years ago when all this silly protesting and banning began. I wear the buckle as a form of political protest. I don't care who it offends.
Everything offends somebody. People have gotten soft. I would take one of those statues and put it on my property if they don't want it. Not so much that I'm a huge confederacy fanatic. Just that I don't believe in all this violent tearing downing and banning history.
Those doing this are tearing many statues and symbols down, not just confederate. Anything white goes. It's racist in itself.
And I have no respect for you for having anything with the Confederate flag on it. After reading the Articles of Secession and the Confederate Constitution, I have every reason to say that the Confederate flag has no place in American society.
You say people have gotten soft. I'll say this. Alot of Black people have never had much respect for ANY Confederates or the Confederate flag. In the years coming from the civil rights movement and after, more Black people have the courage to come out and say "no more Confederate statues".
Tearing down Confederate statues is not tearing down history. It's a recognition that Confederate generals don't deserve to be honored. When you erect a statue of someone in a public space, you're saying that the cause they fought for, who they are, is honorable. The Confederate cause was about keeping Blacks enslaved. Any Confederate general basically fought for that cause. For that reason, said persons do not deserve any honors. Anyone who feels differently has a moral problem.
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