Today tiny Lebanon Baptist Church in Crawford County, Georgia, convenes in a business meeting and grapples with war, death and God’s will. Anguished over the loss of a solider member and his father, the congregation issues a statement “in memory of our deceased Brethren O. M. McAfee & A. J. McAfee.” In the midst of…
This week’s edition of the Tennessee Baptist reprints a list of “Rules for a Good Overseer.” Slave overseers (generally white) are men who are employed by slave owners to manage plantation slave labor for maximum profit. Relatively few Baptists of the South in 1861 own plantations or own enough slaves to merit an overseer. Likewise,…
This week a letter from a self-appointed Baptist army missionary appears in print. S. C. Talley, a Tennessee Baptist, reports of his efforts the previous month to minister among Confederate soldiers training at Camp Trousdale in Sumter County, Tennessee. Camp Trousdale has served as a primary training ground for the Army of Tennessee since June.…