Confederate Monuments Research Paper

Words: 458
Pages: 2

Should Confederate monuments be removed? The removal of Confederate statues across the nation has been fueled by an increase in racial and political tensions. Reminders of Racism by David Higuchi & Moments in History by Charlie Brennan, illustrate both sides' zealous takes on the statues and their removal. However, Confederate statues stand as a pungent reminder of southern history and a way to remind all southerners, no matter their race, how far we came and where we are today. Foremost, the removal of explicitly all Confederate monuments or reminders thereof, demonizes all confederate soldiers, citizens and figures who openly opposed slavery. Robert E. Lee was a general for the union years prior to the Civil War, freed all of his slaves, …show more content…
Men who owned slaves didn’t have to go fight, instead they could stay home.Most who would be conscripted fought to protect their small farms or for their own community from being burned, as seen in Sherman’s March and the mass burnings that took place. Most had seen conflict to some degree and knew the devastating ability of the American Army. On the other hand, there are some statues and relics that have been given a higher meaning, that cling to the “lost cause” as mentioned in Reminders of Racism. However, an object’s connotation is defined by its contemporaries. A statue's true denotation is for remembrance, not to be deified for an evil purpose. These allow us to see the progress we made, says Moments in History. We cannot lose the things that have made us Americans. To add, if we remove all statues with a negative connotation, that would essentially remove all statues or relics. The founding fathers owned slaves, Northern generals destroyed the Southern infrastructure, and Lincoln initially didn’t even want to free all the slaves, but contain them, then only freed Southern slaves. In spite of it all, we look past these individual’s flaws and find a place to remember