Please indulge my curiosity on this, JDS.  I honestly am unaware of any
serious movement, at least among professional historians, to demonize
Robert E. Lee.  There have been critical assessments of his generalship,
but that hardly equates to demonization.  No one to my knowledge has tried
to portray Lee as a Virginia version of monstrosity akin to South
Carolina's James Henry Hammond.  The recent biography by Evans, for
example, finds Lee to be a pretty typical gentleman of his region and
times--hardly a monster or demon.

Best,
Kevin

--On Saturday, February 22, 2003 3:41 PM +0000 [log in to unmask] wrote:

>         There is no historical evidence that I am aware of (and I speak
>         as a long time REL-ophile) that Lee ever purchased/sold/owned
> slaves or was in the passionate, pro-slavery milieu.  The best evidence
> of this is the fact that Mr. Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Union
> army at the start of hostilities.  I doubt the Lincoln/abolitionist wing
> of government would have done so in the case of someone perceived to be a
> staunch pro-slavery man.
>
>        Many have tried to demonize Lee as the evil leader of the
>        pro-slavery wing of the South....none have succeeded based on any
> factual record.
>
> JDS
>
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--
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of History, MSC 2001
James Madison University
Harrisonburg VA 22807
Phone:  540/568-6306
Email:  [log in to unmask]

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