In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any country. ... I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, ... How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. There emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy ... While we see the Course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it all the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who Chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a Single day.Note that Lee envisions the gradual elimination of slavery by about, say, the year 3856. After a couple more millenia of Christian patience and the "mild & melting" but "slow" influence of religion. With all deliberate speed, we might say.
This justification of slavery as a necessary evil for the slaves' uplifting and "instruction as a race" was actually still a conventional justification for slavery at that time in Upper South states like Lee's Virginia. But, as Lee himself was surely aware, most Southern apologists for slavery had long since abandoned that paternalistic line, and praised slavery as a positive good and an eternal institution essential for "white supremacy."
Tags: confederate heritage month 2004, lost cause, robert e lee, slavery
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