INTRODUCTION Baptists and other white Americans North and South during the Civil War-era were unequivocal: secession, the existence of the Confederate States of America, and the Civil War were all the result of slavery, the immoral (or moral, depending on one’s race, political persuasion and/or geographic location) institution that served as the economic engine of…
In Lockland, Ohio the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations join together for a Thanksgiving service preached by Silas Hawley, a Presbyterian minister. Entitled, “National Reconstruction: The Glory and Shame of a Nation,” the sermon celebrates the securing of human equality in the Union victory over the Confederate States of America. America is a “righteous” nation,…
Today the first Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Arkansas is gathered in Little Rock. Many Baptists are among those present. The purpose of the convention is to exert the rights of freedmen and ensure that white Southerners respect their freedom. The road thus far has been brutal, and a future of true…