God's Almost Chosen Peoples
God's Almost Chosen Peoples

Author: George C. Rable

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2010-11-29

Total Pages: 599

ISBN-13: 0807899313

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throughout the Civil War, soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict saw the hand of God in the terrible events of the day, but the standard narratives of the period pay scant attention to religion. Now, in God's Almost Chosen Peoples, Lincoln Prize-winning historian George C. Rable offers a groundbreaking account of how Americans of all political and religious persuasions used faith to interpret the course of the war. Examining a wide range of published and unpublished documents--including sermons, official statements from various churches, denominational papers and periodicals, and letters, diaries, and newspaper articles--Rable illuminates the broad role of religion during the Civil War, giving attention to often-neglected groups such as Mormons, Catholics, blacks, and people from the Trans-Mississippi region. The book underscores religion's presence in the everyday lives of Americans north and south struggling to understand the meaning of the conflict, from the tragedy of individual death to victory and defeat in battle and even the ultimate outcome of the war. Rable shows that themes of providence, sin, and judgment pervaded both public and private writings about the conflict. Perhaps most important, this volume--the only comprehensive religious history of the war--highlights the resilience of religious faith in the face of political and military storms the likes of which Americans had never before endured.

Inventory of the Church Archives of Virginia
Inventory of the Church Archives of Virginia

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1940

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This inventory of the Church Archives of Virginia, Negro Baptist Churches in Richmond, is the second publication in the church series of the Historical Records Survey of Virginia. It is based, as far as possible, on primary sources. These sources have been supplemented by statements made to our researchers by officers and members of the churches, whose archives were surveyed, and by officers of the associations to which the churches belong. -- Preface.

Soul Liberty
Soul Liberty

Author: Nicole Myers Turner

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1469655241

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

That churches are one of the most important cornerstones of black political organization is a commonplace. In this history of African American Protestantism and American politics at the end of the Civil War, Nicole Myers Turner challenges the idea of black churches as having always been politically engaged. Using local archives, church and convention minutes, and innovative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, Turner reveals how freedpeople in Virginia adapted strategies for pursuing the freedom of their souls to worship as they saw fit—and to participate in society completely in the evolving landscape of emancipation. Freedpeople, for both evangelical and electoral reasons, were well aware of the significance of the physical territory they occupied, and they sought to organize the geographies that they could in favor of their religious and political agendas at the outset of Reconstruction. As emancipation included opportunities to purchase properties, establish black families, and reconfigure gender roles, the ministry became predominantly male, a development that affected not only discourses around family life but also the political project of crafting, defining, and teaching freedom. After freedmen obtained the right to vote, an array of black-controlled institutions increasingly became centers for political organizing on the basis of networks that mirrored those established earlier by church associations. We are proud to announce that this book will also be published as an enhanced open-access e-book on a companion website hosted by Fulcrum, an innovative publishing platform launched by Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. The Fulcrum version of the book can be located using this link: https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469655253_Turner.

Gospel of Disunion
Gospel of Disunion

Author: Mitchell Snay

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 1997-09-01

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780807846872

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The centrality of religion in the life of the Old South, the strongly religious nature of the sectional controversy over slavery, and the close affinity between religion and antebellum American nationalism all point toward the need to explore the role of religion in the development of southern sectionalism. In Gospel of Disunion Mitchell Snay examines the various ways in which religion adapted to and influenced the development of a distinctive southern culture and politics before the Civil War, adding depth and form to the movement that culminated in secession. From the abolitionist crisis of 1835 through the formation of the Confederacy in 1861, Snay shows how religion worked as an active agent in translating the sectional conflict into a struggle of the highest moral significance. At the same time, the slavery controversy sectionalized southern religion, creating separate institutions and driving theology further toward orthodoxy. By establishing a biblical sanction for slavery, developing a slaveholding ethic for Christian masters, and demonstrating the viability of separation from the North through the denominational schisms of the 1830s and 1840s, religion reinforced central elements in southern political culture and contributed to a moral consensus that made secession possible.

Avenues of Faith
Avenues of Faith

Author: Samuel Claude Shepherd

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2001-05-15

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 0817310762

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first thorough study of organized mainline churches in a major southern American city during the early 20th century

To Raise Up the South
To Raise Up the South

Author: Sally G. McMillen

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2001-12-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780807127490

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the half century after the Civil War, evangelical southerners turned increasingly to Sunday schools as a means of rejuvenating their destitute region and adjusting to an ever-modernizing world. By educating children -- and later adults -- in Sunday school and exposing them to Christian teachings, biblical truths, and exemplary behavior, southerners felt certain that a better world would emerge and cast aside the death and destruction wrought by the Civil War. In To Raise Up the South, Sally G. McMillen offers an examination of Sunday schools in seven black and white denominations and reveals their vital role in the larger quest for southen redemption. McMillen begins by explaining how the schools were established, detailing northern missionaries' collaboration in their creation and the eventual southern resistance to this northern aid. She then turns to the classroom, discussing the roles of church officials, teachers, ministers, and parents in the effort to raise pious children; the different functions of men and women; and the social benefits of such participation. Though denominations of both races saw Sunday schools as a way to increase their numbers and mold their children, white southerners rarely raised the race issue in the classroom. Black evangelicals, on the other hand, used their Sunday schools to discuss and decry Jim Crow laws, rising violence, and widespread injustices. Integrating the study of race, class, gender, and religion, To Raise Up the South provides an exciting new lens through which to view the turbulent years of Reconstruction and the emergence of the New South. It charts the rise of an institution that became a mainstay in the lives of millions of southerners.

Take Care of the Living
Take Care of the Living

Author: Jeffrey W. McClurken

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2009-08-11

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0813928192

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Take Care of the Living assesses the short- and long-term impact of the war on Confederate veteran families of all classes in Pittsylvania County and Danville, Virginia. Using letters, diaries, church minutes, and military and state records, as well as close analysis of the entire 1860 and 1870 Pittsylvania County manuscript population census, McClurken explores the consequences of the war for over three thousand Confederate soldiers and their families. The author reveals an array of strategies employed by those families to come to terms with their postwar reality, including reorganizing and reconstructing the household, turning to local churches for emotional and economic support, pleading with local elites for financial assistance or positions, sending psychologically damaged family members to a state-run asylum, and looking to the state for direct assistance in the form of replacement limbs for amputees, pensions, and even state-supported homes for old soldiers and widows. Although these strategies or institutions for reconstructing the family had their roots in existing practices, the extreme need brought on by the scope and impact of the Civil War required an expansion beyond anything previously seen. McClurken argues that this change serves as a starting point for the study of the evolution of southern welfare.

The Chronological History of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association and Its Founders from 1866-1966
The Chronological History of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association and Its Founders from 1866-1966

Author: DR. LINWOOD MORINGS BOONE

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2012-03-06

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1463421966

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The author has wonderfully traced the orgins of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Associations and its Founders from 1866 to 1966. He has included brief but substative narratives of the lives of the Founding Fathers namely: L. W. Boone, Z. H. Berry, H. H. Hays, C. E.Hodges, C. E. Johnson, William Reid, Emanuel Reynolds and others. Sufficient attention has been given to the activities of the Women Missionary and Education Union. Pictures and narratives of 10 of its previous presidents has been enshirned in the chapter entitled, "Woman, What of our Past." Historical sketches and pictures of selected churches within the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association displays the far reaching effects of the Founding Fathers. The concluding chapter details the founding of the West Raonoke Missionary Baptist Association from the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association. Dr. Boone has taken the Bataan from others who knew that this important historical contribution needed to be gathered, appreciated, shared and celebrated for a job well done. Unfortunately, no one was able to consistently pursue this great endeavor before Dr. Boones extensive and exhaustive work represented here. Massive in its scope the volume guides the reader in a comprehensive and challenging look at the origin and the significance of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association and the importance of the Founding Fathers and the work with the North Carolina and Virginia abolitionist. The lives of the Founding Fathers and the lives of the first three generations of pastors and officials are succinctly presented as they lifted up the esssential meaning of liberation for the pastor and the local congregations in northeastern North Carolina. The History of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association from 1866-1966 provides critical resources for the study of the formation of this grand institution. Dr. Boone has put in place a solid foundation that can be built upon as new information becomes available. He is married to the former Amanda Battle of Richmond, VA. They reside in Hampton Roads, Virginia.