Monumental Differences - Lee vs. Grant vs. Jefferson vs. Lincoln
Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 9:37 pm
Bootstrap wrote:I have heard historians from Charlottesville talk about this in the Backstory Radio shows, and I think it would. A lot of that has to do with the actual history and the role of these figures in the events of their day. Give me a one sentence summary of who Robert E Lee was. He was a rebel who fought the American government in a bloody war over whether to enslave Americans. A one-sentence summary of who Jefferson was or who Washington was probably would not mention slaves at all, and neither of them were leaders of a rebellion against the American government. And both Jefferson and Washington had much more complicated relationships with slavery.ken_sylvania wrote:I admit I don't know very much about Charlottesville. Jefferson's and Washington's ownership of slaves has come under scrutiny a number of times in the past. I'm curious why you are so confident that they would not become the focal point of protests calling for the removal of their statues? I believe Monticello has been working diligently over the last few years to uncover some of the details about slavery as it related to Jefferson and his estate. Do you think this will make a difference on how statues of him are treated?Bootstrap wrote:Huh? It was the City of Charlottesville that decided to take the statue down, not Antifa. And if you think Charlottesville would tear down the statues of Jefferson, you don't know much about Charlottesville, a city that takes American history much more seriously than most places in America, very close to Monticello, with a university that is one of the best in American history.
Some historians would really prefer that we add more statues to tell the whole story. Add a statue of Ulysses S. Grant and a statue of Abraham Lincoln, for instance. But I think that would spark a whole lot of controversy too. After all, the real meaning of the Robert E Lee statue is probably the myth of the Noble Cause, in the time after "The Birth of a Nation", in the Jim Crow era. And there's no way on earth that there is too for Lincoln or Grant in these parks. I kind of scratch my head when people suggest that taking down a secular monument that white supremacists basically worship would be a form of idolatry.
Should we explore this in a separate thread? It has very little to do with Antifa. The Charlottesville City Council is not an Antifa hotbed, and I really doubt that either Antifa or the white ring extremists have much say in what Charlottesville decides on these matters. I certainly hope not. That should be up to Charlottesville. And there are certainly many cities that will not remove such monuments.