Link , Link , Link , Link , Link , See this [By most historical accounts, Lee was an able tactician and a devout Christian. For the sake of the restoration of the Union, he didn’t want statues erected to Confederate heroes. But Lee was also a slave owner and a brutal taskmaster who deliberately broke up his slaves’ families. He justified his harsh handling of his slaves as necessary “for their instruction as a race.” He didn’t free his slaves until a Virginia court forced his hand, and he turned a blind eye when his soldiers—and later his students at Washington and Lee University—massacred or beat or raped or abducted black soldiers or students.... In short, it was a worldview that understood white men as naturally superior to people of color, the vision of a true, pure, Christian trajectory of American history. None of this made Lee extraordinary. In fact, they were characteristics that qualified him as a Southern gentleman.]