Virginia Senator Tim Kaine believes that Virginia would be better represented by a statue of Pocahontas than by confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Currently, Virginia is represented in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol with statues of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Following the controversy over Lee in Charlottesville, VA, Kaine said Monday that Virginia could choose a better historical figure to represent the state.
“Look, I think a state with Pocahontas, a state with Doug Wilder, the grandson of a slave, Korean War combat veteran, first elected African American governor,” Kaine said, “in 2017, is it really Robert E. Lee that we would say is the person we want to stand for what Virginia is?”
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Pocahontas is somewhat of a romanticized figure because of lore about her relationship with settler John Smith. The actual history of Pocahontas reveals that she was kidnapped by the English in the 1600s, and then converted to Christianity and married tobacco farmer John Rolfe as a condition of her release.
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