This is Silas Soule. You should think about him and his family anytime someone defends Robert E. Lee or Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson with "Well, everybody back in the day thought that." Here's his story: <1/13>

Soule was born into a family of Maine abolitionists. They were big in the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which helped settlers turn Kansas into a free state. <2/13>

When his family moved to Kansas to help, they made their house a stop on the Underground Railroad — and Soule spent his teenage years helping escapees from Missouri find their way to freedom in the North. <3/13>

Silas helped break abolitionists out of Missouri jails during the Bleeding Kansas period — and Soule became so well-known for his prison break skills that he was even recruited to help break out some Harper's Ferry raid co-conspirators. <4/13>

In his twenties, he traveled to Boston to network with various Northern abolitionists — and befriended Walt Whitman along the way. <5/13>

When the Civil War broke out, he immediately joined up with the union army, won a few battles in the Southwest, and ascended the ranks to Captain. <6/13>

In 1864, his regiment reached Sand Creek, Colorado and a colonel ordered the cavalry to attack a Cheyenna and Arapho encampment. However, Soule disobeyed his commander — a fellow abolitionist — and ordered his men to hold fire. <7/13>

The rest of the cavalry massacred the encampment in an incident that became known as the Sand Creek massacre. Soule reported what he witnessed, writing this to his former commanding officer: <8/13>

Soule's report sparked outrage around the country, leading to a formal Army investigation. Soule testified against the colonel — and his testimony led to Congress refusing the Army's request for funding for a general war against the Plains Indians. <9/13>

The former commanding officer, Edward W. Wynkoop, was so disgusted with the continuing aggression of the US Government against the Cheyenne and Arapho that he eventually quit, writing "I refuse to again be the instrument of murder of innocent women and children." <10/13>

A few months after testifying against his fellow officers, Soule was shot and killed in what was likely retaliation for his testimony. His murderer was never charged and was eventually buried in Mississippi with honors. <11/13>

For every awful moment in our history, there were always whistleblowers, moral deviants, conscientious objectors and martyrs like Silas Soule. Those in history have no excuse — and neither do we. <12/13>

For those of us in positions of power or comfort, we should ask ourselves — and teach our children to ask themselves — what injustices today call out to our inner Silas Soule? <13/13>