Campus News

Back tracking

An article in the Detroit Free Press about the possibility of a black line of descendants from the family of famed Confederate Gen.  Robert E. Lee quoted James C. Cobb, the B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor in the History of the American South.

Lee came “to represent the more noble aspects” of the Southern position without delving in slavery and racial issues, Cobb said.

And although he held slaves, Cobb said “he general minimized his connection to slavery.”