i was unaware that Gen. U.. grant owned a slave; by the name of William Jones. I looked it up and discovered that Grant had inherited Jones from his father. In 1859, grant freed Jones. Interesting moral decision because Grant could have sold Jones for $1,500 (in today's money, that would be equal to $43,000 USD )
I get that, Richard. That wasn't directed at you. While it was once true that the victors were the ones who get to write history, with the advent of the internet, it seemed that it was no longer true. But while it's a fact that anyone can write the history, we have recently found that government intervention and complicit "social media" people, we can write about it to our hearts' content, but it may never be read. :-( I have a good friend who is a direct descent of two Confederate soldiers, and until I got to know him well, I had never considered it either. It is clear that to this day, the dishonor attributed to his ancestors is painful for him.
He owned more than one slave. Inherited, true. But he could have freed them all on day one. He didn't. -- White House History General Lee, on the other hand, was opposed to both slavery and secession. He joined the Confederacy due to his allegiance to his State, which were all intended to be sovereign states. Jones was not inherited, but purchased by Grant.
General Lee did not actually own the land which would become Arlington Cemetery either. It was technically -- though not legally -- passed down to his wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, great-granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington, whose parents lived there with the Lees and their 7 children -- including their eldest child, George Washington Custis Lee -- until the deaths of her parents, who are buried on the land and therefore rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
It is! Once you point out that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free ALL of the slaves in this country. In fact, after the EP was issued, there remained more than 500,000 legally enslaved people in the states which were not Confederate states.
What do you think the Civil War was about if NOT slavery ? I assure you that the issue of slavery was a PART of the reason, but not the only reason.
right...tax levies for more federal control of products being made and sold...starting with cotton... that was the beginning of states leaving the union
It’s a sad thing but I will guarantee that the majority of those involved with the Civil War even knew why they were at war. There were no instant lines of communication that had the ability to reach out to everyone with massive amounts of information. Until somewhere along the way someone with some knowledge explained things, people were simply either from the north or south and that’s all it took to decide what side of the war one was on. Some farmers didn’t even know there was a war going on until the “damn Yankees” burned down their corn field and took the horses. Today, we have access to a myriad of ways to find out information but it can be and often is slanted to fit a common narrative so finding the truth can be a lot of work but it’s worth the time. One clue I found out is when one surfs the news channels, the commentators (often erroneously called Journalists) are saying the exact same things word for word. e.g. They’re going to ruin our Democracy” or “They smashed through the doors”. Verbatim news is actually a script that is written for associated news people to follow and to deviate from the script could mean some heavy admonishments from their producers so they stick to what they are told to read. No news outlet is right 100% of the time…none. But, if one searches to find an agent of the news that involves good investigative reporting then at least one stands a small chance of getting at most of the truth. After that, it’s all about reasoning and logic and what the viewer believes or doesn’t believe.
And to that Gen. Bragg might have said, “another derned Yankee tryin’ to move the Mason Dixon line further south”.
To be sure, I’m in favor of renaming Fayetteville to Karenville in honor of all the gazillions of people who are offended by Ft. Bragg.