An Emancipation Statue Debuts In Virginia Two Weeks After Robert E. Lee Was Removed

[appalachiablue]

Source: NPR

Two weeks after the 6o-foot-tall statue of Robert E. Lee was removed in Richmond, Va., the former Confederate capital city has become home a new statue, this one commemorating the abolition of slavery.

The Emancipation and Freedom Monument -- designed by Thomas Jay Warren, a sculptor based in Oregon -- was installed Wednesday on Brown's Island on the James River in downtown Richmond, about 2 miles from where the Lee statue once stood.

It consists of two 12-foot bronze statues of a man and a woman holding an infant who have been newly freed from slavery. The statue's pedestal includes the names, images and stories of 10 Virginians who contributed to the struggle for freedom before and after emancipation, including Dred Scott, whose lawsuit led to the Supreme Court decision that persons of African descent were not U.S. citizens; Nat Turner, who led a successful slave rebellion; and educator Lucy Simms.

"It really captured what we were trying to do in that the figures capture the emotion of emancipation, but the people on the base capture who else was involved of the process of fighting against slavery, leading to emancipation, and fighting for freedom and equality going forward," state Sen. Jennifer McClellan told NPR...

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/22/1039333919/new-emancipation-statue-richmond-virginia-monument

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[Mysterian]

1. I am proud of Virginia

and the progress they are making!

[appalachiablue]

2. Absolutely, many people are proud

[NNadir]

16. I'm reading "Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause."

It's written by a retired Brigadier General in the US Army, Ty Seidule - he once headed the history department at West Point, where he is an Emeritus Professor - about growing up in Virginia.

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

Reading it, I would say Virginia had a very long way to go.

General Seidule notes in this compelling narrative that John F. Kennedy declined to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963, lest he offend (White) Virginians.

He tells the story of an attempt by African American taxpayers in Alexandria to get library cards, a version of the "sit-ins" that would pick up steam 20 years later. It failed.

[cstanleytech]

3. A far better choice than the last ones but my first choice would have been a Harriet Tubman one

as she risked her life to help many people escape into freedom.

[Slammer]

4. statue

It might have been better to have left up the statue of Robert E. Lee but with a new plaque saying:


Robert E. Lee 1807-1870

"In the past, the leader of the opposition knew how to not be a sore loser when he lost fair and square."

[appalachiablue]

5. The 60 foot statue glorifying Lee, the Confederacy

and slavery never should have been erected in the first place.

[paleotn]

9. By the time Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were bottled up....

within the lines of Richmond and Petersburg, the outcome was mathematical. Atlanta simply added insult to injury. It was all over. Yet still he and the defenders of human slavery fought on.

[Slammer]

12. U. S. Grant

There's a reason why Ulysses S. Grant was known as Unconditional Surrender Grant.

Lee and his army at that point were fighting for the prospect of some negotiated peace which would have allowed them to retain political power, personal property, and/or their slaves rather than being forced into unconditional surrender.

It wasn't clear that there'd be a constitutional amendment to free the slaves at that point. It also wasn't clear that former slaves would be given citizenship, the right to vote, or even the right to stay in the US.

There were people in the North and even in Lincoln's government who were wanting to cut a deal, even as the South was tottering on its last legs, because the casualties which Grant was inflicting on his own troops was so horrific.

His nickname among his own troops wasn't the media's "Unconditional Surrender" Grant but rather Grant "the Butcher" because of how he was 'frivolously' spending their lives.

We're fortunate that there was an unconditional surrender. But it could have been otherwise.

Those last battles cost the Union army 65,000+ casualties...and the North knew it was going to be that costly going in. Cutting some kind of deal to prevent that would have been very tempting.

"Hey, we'll come back into the Union and be good citizens. Just let us keep our current slaves for 20 years and pay us for releasing them like some of the deals which were proposed before the war. No slaves in the new territories/states. And the freed slaves get shipped off to Liberia to start their new life rather than stay here and become citizens, like many abolitionists themselves have proposed."

I mean, sure that's revolting to us. But those were proposals which had (at various points in time before the war) fairly widespread support.

And cutting that sort of deal very late in the war, and keeping the Confederacy's treasury rather than losing it to the US, would have seemed wonderful to the slave owners compared to what seemed destined to happen otherwise.

The South was so desperate that they were arming slaves and training them to fight the Union army at the end of the war. So heck yeah, they'd jump at the chance for a deal...almost any deal because an armed slave was already their greatest nightmare and they were actually doing that.

Grant was betting that he could force Lee into an unconditional surrender before his casualty count racked up enough political protest at home to have him replaced as commander of the army (like so many other generals who'd been removed).

Lee was betting that he could hold out until political pressure in the North created a change in their policy or a change in the Union army commanders.

[NNadir]

14. Lee lost a far greater proportion of troops than Grant.

The copperhead description of Grant, as a "butcher" taken up by Lost Cause" racists is simply absurd.

Grant was strategically and tactically much Lee's superior.

[ShazzieB]

10. Fuck that.

Lee, like all the Confederates, was a Traitor. The new Emancipation and Freedom Monument is magnificent!

[nuxvomica]

6. The statues are very cleverly done

The man's chains are permanently suspended in the air half-way below his wrists. Below is a video of the ceremony with the actual unveiling occurring at around 54:00.

[iluvtennis]

11. Thanks for this psot. n/t

[keithbvadu2]

7. Official republican position - Lincoln was our nation's greatest leader

Official republican position - Lincoln was our nation's greatest leader

Thank God republicans won that war back in the 1860s.

This is the official position of today's republicans.
From the 2004 GOP Platform

"One hundred and fifty years ago, Americans who had gathered to protest the expansion of slavery gave birth to a political Party that would save the Union - the Republican Party.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois carried the Republican banner in the Presidential election and was elected the Party's first President. He became our nation's greatest leader … and one of our Party's greatest heroes. "

[stillcool]

8. maybe people will learn some history after all.

[cinematicdiversions]

13. THank God The statues are attractive and appropriate.

There is nothing worse than having a cause you believe in represented by art so ugly that you could be mistaken for a Trumper with the disgust you have for the art rather than the cause.

Looking your way Lucille Ball statue and MLK memorial.

[LiberatedUSA]

15. That is a real nice change.

Wonder how long it will take for the Trumpers to vandalize it. We may have to up the charges on vandalizing statues.