>>Our best guess is that somewhere in the 1840s or 1850s, they were all members of the same church and had one very intense preacher who convinced them that all of the slaveowners and their supporters were going to Hell for owning Christians. We have a few suspects and the few pre-Civil War letters we have show a definite change in attitude amongst some in the family in the 1850s.
If these people were alive now, I’m only half joking when I say they’d probably have their own compound. I shouldn’t make light of their beliefs - enslaving Christians was a very evil and un-Christian thing to be doing, but they were out there. Had any of them come across any captured Confederates that actually owned slaves (there weren’t that many in uniform that owned slaves), it would not surprise me if they had executed them. They were that far out there.<<
I appreciate you sharing that.
When I think about how I could have come from a long line of preachers who if they were not slave holders at least fought on the side of the South in defense of slavery wrapped in state’s rights - I have to resist blanketly condemning them - I remind myself there was slavery in the bible. That in the 1800’ the Catholic church still kept Jews forcibly in Ghettos and the inquisition continued.
I try instead to be greatful for how far we have come.