I just finished a book called "Guns of the South," by Harry Turtledove, and in this book, Robert E Lee is the main POV character. Its an alternate history about the Confederacy winning the war, and it portrayed Lee in a very positive light. In the book, Lee was kind to his slaves, and wasn't a fan of the institution of slavery from the start, but became even more disenfranchised as the book progressed. Obviously this is fiction, but the first quarter of the book seemed to be well researched, and was true to the historical fact. As for Lee's personality, it got me wondering if he was actually like this, so I did some googling. I found quite a few differing opinions, and didn't get much of a definitive answer. Growing up in Texas, I've heard stories about Robert E Lee my entire life. How he was a military genius, how he opposed slavery but joined the Confederacy to stay loyal to his native Virginia, how he was a kind man that even Union soldiers admired. I always took it for granted as a child that Lee was a great man, but as I got older, I became more aware of the unusual romanticism that southern states feel about the Confederacy, and how many of the Confederate politicians and generals would be considered monsters by today's standard, and weren't very well liked in their time either. My question is, has history been too kind to Robert E Lee?