Bethel Baptist Institutional Church of Jacksonville, Florida, the oldest Baptist church in the state, is claimed by both white and black members. As related by one historian: “Instituted in 1838 by James McDonald and Ryan Frier, who served as co-pastors, Bethel Baptist’s congregation numbered six charter members including two slaves called Bacchus and Peggy. Church…
A letter from an anonymous North Carolina Confederate soldier is published in today’s Richmond Daily Dispatch, lamenting the Confederate government not protecting his state’s citizens from marauding federal troops. Thinking it may be interesting to the many readers of your excellent paper and perhaps cause our Government to turn a listening ear to the plaintive…
The Civil War years are a time of story-telling, corporately and personally. Soldiers and civilians on both sides oftentimes pass along personal stories that reinforce sectional pride and prejudices. The truth of such stories typically cannot be qualified, yet the stories themselves convey truths that transcend questions of factual accuracy. One of the tens of…