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Gen. Robert E. Lee owned slaves
By ARIJETA LAJKA
Published 5:16 PM EDT, June 12, 2020

CLAIM: Gen. Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate States Army in the
Civil War, �opposed both secession and slavery.� He did not own slaves.

AP�S ASSESSMENT: False. According to historians, not only did Lee own
slaves, but he also fought in court to keep working slaves from his father-in-law�s estate. Claims casting Lee as an anti-slavery figure are
tied to a false narrative known as the Lost Cause, which says the
Confederate experience in the Civil War was not about slavery, but state�s rights.

THE FACTS: As protests following the death of George Floyd lead to a reexamination of historical injustice, there�s been a campaign calling for monuments celebrating the Confederacy to be taken down. False posts
emerged on Facebook claiming that Lee �opposed both slavery and
secession.� The false post was shared tens of thousands of times.


Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white Minneapolis police
officer pressed his knee against his neck for several minutes as he
struggled to breathe.

John Reeves, a historian and author of the book, �The Lost Indictment of
Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case Against an American Icon,� said the
claim about Lee is false.

�Between owning a handful of slaves from his own family and then managing
his father-in-law�s 200 slaves, Lee was very, very involved with slavery
during his life up until the end of 1862,� he said.

Reeves explained that Lee worked the slaves for about five years in order
to pay off legacies associated with his father-in-law�s estate. �He was utilizing the slave labor in order to pay the legacies,� Reeves explained.

Lee wanted to work the slaves beyond the five-year limit stated in his father-in-law�s will. Lee fought in court to keep the slaves working
because he didn�t know if he would be able to pay off his legacies.

Wesley Norris was born a slave on the plantation that Lee managed after
his father-in-law died. Norris testified during the court fight that Lee
beat him when he tried to run away. �Every one of the facts in Wesley
Norris� account has been shown to be true,� Reeves noted.

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The Lost Cause ideology imagines Lee as a gifted military general who
wasn�t fighting for slavery but was fighting for state�s rights.

Defenders of Lee point to a portion of a letter he wrote to his wife where
he refers to slavery as a �moral & political evil.� But it is taken out of context. In the rest of the letter, Lee underscores that the �subjugation�
of the slaves needs to go on longer and only God can free them.

�If you judge him by his actions, he separated families through sale, he
beat slaves who ran away,� said Ariela Gross, professor of law and history
at University of Southern California. Gross focuses on race and slavery in
the United States. �He was completely engaged in the work of slave holding
and supporting slavery.�
___

This is part of The Associated Press� ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook
to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

Here�s more information on Facebook�s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536

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