Revisiting Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconciliation at Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House

Abstract

Arlington National Cemetery, containing the graves of around 400,000 people, mostly veterans, is one of the United States’ most treasured cultural sites. The site also contains Arlington House, former enslaved labor plantation and home of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Together, the cemetery and the plantation house played important roles in the divisions of the Civil War; the flawed North–South reconciliation that took place in the decades that followed; and the struggles over racial equality and historical memory that have continued into the 21st century. Following a National Park Service rehabilitation of Arlington House, accounts of enslaved people and their descendants are now considerably more prominent in the historical interpretation. Yet questions remain over how best to remember slavery, the Confederacy, and the Civil War.