March 24, 1861 (Palm Sunday)

Palm Sunday

Hat tip Seven Score and Ten, March 24, 1861, "Keziah Brevard's diary."

"...I came to Beulah Church...music was too fast for church music...some good voices in the choir...we need more intelligent preachers with the true spirit, if we had such a one they would draw hearers...after preaching I came home...."

A bit of trivia:  Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865 which was Palm Sunday...four "Palm Sunday" years from now.



From the Baptists and the American Civil War, week of March 18-24, I read  the following:

"Charles Spurgeon, famed British Particular Baptist preacher,  moved into a newly constructed church in England with seating estimated at five thousand people and standing room for another one thousand...it was the largest church building of its day and the forerunner of late 20th century mega-churches.  White Baptists in the South have little appreciation for the work of Charles Spurgeon.  The British preacher for years has been speaking out unequivocally against slavery, and his books are now routinely burned and banned by white Southern Baptists."

"Both Charleston and Richmond are centers of Baptist influence.  Charleston is home to the oldest Baptist church in the South...home to the oldest Baptist association in the South, the Charleston Baptist Association...and boasts a Southern Baptist publishing house.   Virginia in the post Revolutionary War era emerged as a center for Baptist activity in the South and home to some of the most prominent Baptist congregations in the South.  The Baptist congregations in both cities will not emerge from the impending Civil War unscathed."


"Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, gives an impromptu speech [Cornerstone speech] in Savannah, Georgia in which he echoes what many Baptists have been saying for months;  that slavery is the cause of the division between North and South.  Many Baptist leaders in the South publicly support Stephens, including editors of Baptist newspapers."

"...while white southern slave-holders and other pro-slavery advocates (including many Baptist preachers and editors) frequently cite the less-than-human nature of blacks as a rationale for enslaving Africans.  The Georgia Constitution officially proclaims that blacks are indeed human.  This inherent tension will remain throughout the war, playing out in the pulpit and religious press, among other venues."

Hat tip Daily Observations from the Civil War, March 23, 1861, "Diary of William Howard Russell -- ...the Government appears to be helplessly drifting with the current of events, having neither bow nor stern, neither keel nor deck, neither rudder, compass, sails, or steam."