A Former Slave on the Personal Goodness of Robert E. Lee
Lee had many faults. But even his former slaves believed him the best of men.
by Rod D. Martin
July 18, 2021
Sunday thoughts.
Robert E. Lee was personally an extremely good and inspiring man. And I am posting the story below because it should inspire us all, especially those of us who are employers or otherwise leaders of any sort.
Lee should be honored, even though he fought for the wrong side. He is certainly not the first good man to fight for the wrong side, in his or any other century. Respect should be paid wherever it is due.
I am no friend of the (Democrat) Confederacy. The Republicans were right then as they are now: "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men", and no evil racist Jim Crow, eugenics, CRT, or other schemes to divide and conquer us all, as the Democrats have foisted upon us for nearly their entire history.
Neither am I a great fan of Lee professionally. Robert E. Lee was nowhere near so great a general as the mythology suggests. Had the South had Grant or Sherman in his place, the Democrats would have won the war.
I say these things to make my point.
I'm outspoken. I believe in naming names. But we must never lose sight of the fact that godly people can have unfortunate and mistaken affiliations. We should defeat them where we must, but persuade them when we can. The best way to defeat an enemy is still to make him a friend, as Christ Himself does through the Gospel.
Had Lincoln been able to persuade Lee rather than merely defeat him, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved.
And that leads us to that other essential point wherein we must look away from our opponents and instead upon at ourselves: had Lee been willing to place the bigger picture and the greater good ahead of his fondness for Virginia — as Sam Houston did in Texas — he might have saved Virginia, the Union, and countless lives.
We must not major on minors. Lee did, and the price was stark.
Read the brief story below. Whatever his public errors, Lee lived a life of personal godliness, imperfect but increasing in sanctification with time, the only way such increase ever happens.
And those closest to him, men he had most wronged, knew it.
"William Mack Lee — Body Servant of General Robert E. Lee. He stayed with General Lee throughout the war and until the day Lee died in 1870. Mack said of General Lee after his death "I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one born of a woman greater than General Robert E. Lee, according to my judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender."General Lee left Mack $360 in his will, which Mack used to go to school and started 14 churches. He became an ordained Missionary Baptist minister in Washington, DC."
-- A Former Slave on the Personal Goodness of Robert E. Lee originally appeared as a Facebook post by Rod D. Martin.
👏👏👏 A terrific piece by you, Dr. Martin. Robert E. Lee was a great and pious man! The Republicans were definitely right in opposing slavery and when they said “free soil, free labor, free men!” The Democrats were wrong in protecting chattel slavery. It is also a great thing that the Union was victorious in the Civil War, secession failed and that slavery was abolished for all times. But Robert E. Lee was a great man, a great general and a great Christian who still deserves to be celebrated and honored. Yes, in a sense, he did fight on the wrong side and make the wrong choice to choose Virginia over the United States. He certainly had many flaws as well. He owned slaves, had the typical views for his time on race, had a bad temper, and made miscalculations on the battlefield. But he was a man of honor who was universally respected by all who knew him. He was a model student at West Point graduating second in his class, never getting a single demerit during his time as a cadet there. Lee was a respected and competent superintendent at West Point.
General Lee was a Mexican War hero who risked his life to bring crucial information to the American forces. He agonized over his choice between his home state of Virginia and his country the United States of America. In the end he couldn’t raise his sword against his home state. General Lee rather than allow his Confederate forces to launch a guerrilla war against the United States, he surrendered in a gentlemanly way to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox and Grant was magnanimous and lenient in victory towards Lee and his men. Lee did everything possible to foster national reconciliation after the war. He politely refused to attend Confederate veterans reunions and opposed the building of Confederate statues as he felt these things would only keep the wounds of war open. Lee also chastised prominent Southerners like Jefferson Davis and Jubal Early for their outbursts against Reconstruction and urged Southerners to cooperate with the federal authorities for the good of all. He turned around Washington College overnight after becoming its President.
Lee’s views on slavery and race were complex. Lee believed that slavery was a moral and political evil but an evil that was necessary to civilize and Christianize blacks people. Nevertheless, he believed slavery would eventually die off and favored gradual emancipation at the right time. Lee believed that blacks were inferior to whites, but did recognize the humanity of black people and believed they should be treated fairly and justly. General Lee expelled students from Washington College who attacked local black men. Lee opposed voting rights for black people but did support limited civil rights, a system of free education and kind treatment for the freedman. In a letter to one of his sons, Lee’s complex attitude toward blacks in on full display.
In the letter, he tells his son not to hire black workers as they are lazy and shiftless. But further down says he wishes blacks no ill in the world and would to the contrary, do everything in his power to help them. Lee wrote a warm letter to his former slave Amanda Parks. William Mack Lee’s testimony about his master upon his death was very moving and only adds to the mountain of evidence that Lee always conducted himself in an honorable manner. His personal goodness can also be shown by the fact he left his former slave William $360 in his will to use to build a good life for himself. William Mack Lee used the money to go to school and found 14 churches. He would go on to become an ordained Missionary Baptist Minister.