[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Frankly I think they deserved what came to them. Reconstruction as the extreme radicals of the Republican party was draconian, but it never came to fruition. In fact the South reverted back to intense racism and segregation by the end of the 1800s. I mean consider this - people in the South thought it was OK to tell blacks to get to the back of the bus and get their own washrooms right until the mid-1960s! That is only ONE generation ago. How the Southern Church could have defended that is outright Orwellian and definitely not Christian.

Sowell: Irresponsible 'Education' (slavery)

William Wilberforce

Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell

Epistle to Philemon

Slavery and the Civil War.

Slavery was an integral part of the Roman Empire at the founding of Christianity. The Book of Philemon (which is only a single chapter) treats the issue of slavery without taking a stand against the institution (Philemon being a slaveholder, and the letter calls for forgiveness of an infraction by a particular slave, whom St. Paul converted and who served Paul until Paul told him to return to his master. The point is, slavery was an established institution in all times and places up to the point when Christianity in general, Protestants especially, and British Protestants in particular adopted a stance rejecting slavery as an institution. British influence worldwide was such that slavery was pretty much abolished “worldwide” (still exists in Africa, IMHO) - but only after the Wilberforce-inspired British revulsion against the institution.

The American South was peculiarly situated to be the last ones to “get the word.” Southerners grew up within the system, were perfectly accustomed to blacks seeming unintelligent (you would seem unintelligent too, if you were raised under the conditions blacks were raised under), and their economy was founded on the premise of black slavery.

[Sam Gamgee]

I find that excuse “The Bible said it was alright” weak. Christ didn’t tell us anything about voting, or dealing with tyrants either, but I dispute that the Bible advocated the evil tradition of slavery. Just because there isn’t a verse that says that slavery is evil, doesn’t mean it isn’t evil. We need to figure that out for ourselves, and unfortunately Southerners just couldn’t grasp it.