A statue was taken down in Richmond, Virginia, this week due to a  Supreme Court order. This statue depicted Robert E. Lee, the Commander-In-Chief for the Confederacy. This is part of our history as Americans. He was a fantastic general, a wealthy man, a celebrity of his time and the purpose of this statue was to honor him. This statue should have never gone up. Barring the fact that it was built after the war by his children, Robert E Lee was a traitor and an enemy of the United States. We don’t have statues of other historical traitors, like Benedict Arnold, nor do we have statues of other enemies, like Hitler, regardless of their military strength. 

It’s important to note that at the beginning of the Civil War, the war wasn’t to abolish slavery, it was to preserve the Union. 2 years into the 4 year war, the war’s purpose changed drastically, at the Gettysburg Address, where our former president decided to make the awful war mean something. So, in the brightest light, technically General Lee wasn’t fighting for slavery… to start with. He would obviously later continue fighting after the Gettysburg Address, and he too had slaves at home. 

Supporters of the statue state that it’s part of Southern heritage, that we should remember him because we should know where we came from. I agree with this sentiment, because most of our country misunderstands the Civil War, but if they didn’t learn the truth about the Civil War in their history class, seeing a huge statue of a slave owner isn’t going to make it better. 

Now, finally, the symbolic importance of statues in history.  A statue of King George actually once existed in New York, but at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, it was torn down as a symbolic gesture. Now, the statue might be found as musketballs in a museum somewhere.

Needless to say, it was about time that we took down the statue. It represented a piece of our history, but it was a piece that was misremembered to begin with and easily misinterpreted by the people General Lee oppressed in life.