[cowboyway]

although it would have been a rare southerner who would have publicly claimed a slave or any black man as his best friend.

You're projecting as if you lived 160+ years ago. All you know is the yankee revisionist history that you've swallowed.

Was Weary a true volunteer? Was it possible for Weary to be a true volunteer? If Frank told him to go to war, could he decide to stay on the plantation? If Frank told him to stay home, could he decide to follow Frank anyway? Was it possible for Weary to make a free choice about anything in his life?

Like I said earlier, you yankees have a fixed opinion of the South that will never change. That's why, even today, us local Southerners despise you damnyankee transplants.

[Sherman Logan]

Like I said earlier, you yankees have a fixed opinion of the South that will never change.

Is that why you make no attempt to answer any of my questions?

Is it possible for any slave to be truly a volunteer? Would a southern (or, less unanimously, northern) white man of 1861 have publicly claimed a black man as his "best friend," thus implicitly assigning him status as an equal?

If you can come up with some valid answers to my questions, as opposed to non-responsive victimized rants, I'm perfectly willing to change my mind.

[Non-Sequitur]

...us local Southerners despise you damnyankee transplants.

So much for all that 'heritage not hate' crap y'all spout.