Religion, long woven into the fabric of the South prior to the war, was used an ideological weapon against the abolitionist North decades before the war began. More to the point, white religion is that which has served to uphold the moral and biblical righteousness of white supremacy and African slavery while creating a Christian…
John R. Bowles, born June 13, 1826 in Lynchburg, Virginia, is a free black and a Baptist minister. As a young man, Bowles settled near Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio, marrying Sarah Jane Bryant in 1848. There the couple grew their family, in addition to participating in the Underground Railroad. At thirty years of age,…
The Civil War is a diaspora for many Southern families, including the Philip Hugh and Frances (Fanny) Wallace family of Paducah, Kentucky. Prior to the war, Philip was an attorney and life for the family was one of ease and luxury and, like many wealthy families of the South, financed (whether directly, indirectly or both)…