General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Jesse James and Debt Collectors [View all]MadHound
(34,179 posts)The man was a brutal, vicious, racist outlaw who couldn't except that the South had lost, and decided to take the war, his rage and frustration out on innocent victims in the Midwest. He is no more worthy of romanticizing and mythologizing than Nathan Bedford Forest, another Confederate who refused to let the war end, and continued to fight it by forming the KKK.
James, despite the myth, never gave away the money he stole, but kept it for himself, and then squandered it. He grew up in a family that owned slaves(part of the Little Dixie belt that runs across Missouri), and became a guerrilla soldier for the Confederacy, as did his brother Frank. These two were essentially bushwhackers, roving gangs of men who attacked homes, businesses and other easy targets for various reasons, carrying out personal vendettas, monetary gain, or just sheer sadistic joy.
Frank and Jesse continued down this path after the war, and how their brutality and cruelty ever came to be romanticized, I don't know. But these myths are false, and they need to be done away with.