On 8 September 2021, the Robert E. Lee statue was removed and cut into two pieces in Richmond, the ex-capital of the Confederacy.
Intrigued by this act, I reread Reading the Man A Portrait of Robert E Lee Through His Private Letters by Elizabeth Brown Pryor. This book won the Lincoln Prize.
Published in 2007 I wanted to delve deeper, beyond the caricature, into RE Lee’s view in slavery. After all, his very famous name Robert E Lee was an artifice created by the popular press. (p xi and 300).
“… Lee declined either to defend the institution (of slavery) completely or to work to destroy it. Instead, he chose to distance himself and to accept an elaborate middle ground that acknowledges its faults but justifies its existence” – page 152.
This is not a biography from cradle to grave. Instead, it’s an extended meditation by Pryor on various facets and viewpoints of RE Lee (1807- 1870).
Using extracts of letters, some previously unpublished, written by RE Lee and others, Pryor would then launch into extended discussions of RE Lee’s philosophy, etc in the context of the points and subject matters covered by those letters.
The end result is a very deep meditation. Readers new to RE Lee may not enjoy this approach. It is meant for the more discerning readers.
Personally, I would have like a chapter devoted to RE Lee’s view on slavery. Then we can understand better the current political correctness viewpoints raging through the States.