Letter to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings about the replica Robert E. Lee Mansion at Oaklawn Park

The replica of the Robert E. Lee Park wasn't even considered by the Task Force on Confederate Monuments.

An error here in the letter. Stratford Hall is the home of the Lees of Virginia and Arlington Hall is the home of Robert E. Lee. Lee was born in Stratford Hall.

This letter was sent certified to Rawlings along with copies to all 14 Dallas city council members.

October 15, 2017

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                                    

                                                                                    edwardsebesta@gmail.com

Mayor Mike Rawlings

City of Dallas

Mayor and City Council City of Dallas

1500 Marilla St.

Dallas, TX 75201

Dear Hon. Rawlings:

I regret to see that the Task Force on Confederate Monuments didn’t include the one-third replica of Lee’s plantation house, Stratford, at Oak Lawn Park in its deliberation.

The replica Stratford was understood to be an important part of promoting the idea that Robert E. Lee was a hero by the Dallas Southern Memorial Association (DSMA).

The DSMA in the forwards written by their presidents explain sometimes directly and sometimes less directly that the purpose of Robert E. Lee Park was to oppose the civil rights movement.

The replica Stratford is not a plantation house in general but a specific plantation house where slavery was practiced and the plantation house of Robert E. Lee. It serves to normalize both Robert E. Lee and antebellum slavery in the United States and excuse Robert E. Lee’s practice of slavery.  I enclose an account of Lee having runaway slaves punished, and how horrible the use of salt and brine in these punishments were. These are the terrors in history than plantation weddings ignore.

I see no good reason why this wasn’t included in the agenda of the Task Force on Confederate monuments. It is a Confederate monument. In fact it is worse than Confederate statues since when it is used people are directly engaged in it.

I don’t think the city of Dallas should be engaged directly or indirectly in the plantation wedding business and this replica plantation house needs to be addressed. It also should not be addressed as is done in some cases by having some token African American cultural event.

                                                                        Sincerely Yours,

                                                                        Edward H. Sebesta

CC:

Office	Name	Address	Address
Mayor Pro Tem	Dwaine Caraway	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem	Adam Medrano	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 1 Council Member	Scott Griggs	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 3 Council Member	Casey Thomas II	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 5 Council Member	Rickey D. Callahan	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 6 Council Member	Omar Narvaez	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 7 Council Member	Kevin Felder	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 8 Council Member	Tennell Atkins	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 9 Council Member	Mark Clayton	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 10 Council Member	B. Adam McGough	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 11 Council Member	Lee Kleinman	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 12 Council Member	Sandy Greyson	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 13 Council Member	Jennifer Staubach Gates	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall
District 14 Council Member	Philip T. Kingston	Mayor and City Council	Dallas City Hall

This is the account which I enclosed with the mailing.

Robert E. Lee Has His Slaves Whipped and Brine Poured Into the Wounds

The following account if from the book, “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, and Interviews, and Autobiographies,” edited by John W. Blassingame. It is published by Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 70893.

[Page 467]

Newspaper and Magazine Interviews, 1864‑1938

WESLEY NORRIS

Interviewed, 1866(?), b. Virginia, Enslaved: Virginia

It has frequently been represented by the friends and admirers of Robert E. Lee, late an officer in the rebel army, that, although a slave­holder, his treatment of his chattels was invariably kind and humane. The subjoined statement, taken from the lips of one of his former slaves, indicates the real character of the man:

"My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr. Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about seven­teen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to 'lay it on well,' an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done. After this my cousin and myself were sent to Hanover.

The torment of salt or brine in wounds.

Mr. Norris’ account though descriptive doesn’t really express what is was like to have salt or brine put in your open wounds. Being a victim he probably would not like to describe his own behavior. I am not exactly an expert on torture and its psychological impact on its victims.  The following historical record gives a very accurate description.

This is from page 147 in the book, “An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865,” by Randolph B. Campbell, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA. It is an account of whipping by a white women remembering a childhood experience. The primary reference is Am. Slave, Supp., Ser. 2, IV, 1120-21, (Mollie Dawson). This book in the same section has the description of whippings and its use in slave life. The language is offensive and the event is ghastly. It is provided here so that the reader know the brutal reality of antebellum slave life.

“This white man was whipping him and the blood was all over this nigger and he was saying "o, master, o, master, I pray you not to hit me any more. Oh, Lordy, oh, Lordy, has mercy on me. Master, please has mercy on me, please has mercy." But this man wouldn't stop a minute and spits tobacco juice and cuss him and then starts in whip­ping him again. This nigger was jumping around on the ground all tied up, just like a chicken when you chops his head off when this man was whipping him and when the white folks would stop awhile this nigger would lay there and roll from side to side and beg for mercy.

I runs off a good piece when this white folks started whipping him and stopped and looks back at him, I was so scared that I just stood there and watched him till he quit. Then he tells some of the slaves to wash him off and put salt in the cut places and he stood there to watch them to see that they did. He was chewing his tobacco, spitting and cussing that nigger and when they gets him washed off and puts salt in the raw places he sure did scream and groan.

But when he groaned they just keeping putting the salt in to the wounds on his poor old beat up body.

The first thing that I know my father was patting me on the back and said, "Honey, you better run along home now," and I sure did and I didn't go back over there any more. That was the only slave I ever saw get a whipping.”