With Lee in Virginia

Novel, Historical fiction by G. A. Henty

Blurb

With Lee in Virginia, A Story of the American Civil War is a book by British author G.A. Henty. It was published by Blackie and Son Ltd, London. Henty's character, Vincent Wingfield, fights for the Confederate States of America, even though he is against slavery. As suggested by the title, he is primarily with the Army of Northern Virginia. Henty's novel has been cited by some literary historians as an example of British right-wingers' sympathy for the Confederate cause; discussing With Lee in Virginia, Jeffrey Richards cites the book as "significantly pro-Southern". Henty defends slavery throughout the novel, stating although slavery was capable of "abominable" cruelty under brutal masters, "..taken all in all, the negroes on a well-ordered estate, under kind masters, were probably a happier class of people than the laborers upon any estate in Europe." At the novel's end, Henty has the Wingfield family's former slaves return and continue working for their former owners:
The negroes, however, for the most part remained steadily working on the estate.

First Published

1890

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