Thanks for the opportunity to respond. The more I read about people and events during this time, the more everything seems to differ from what I had imagined. I do recommend both books to you. Oakes makes his points by quoting letters and diaries of Southerners. I'm not a Lincoln fan, if you know what I mean, so the title of Lind's book put me off, but I've read parts of it three or more times. He uses some extraodinary quotes!

I'm currently reading a new publication about Southern ministers and their defense of slavery. They knew that Scripture didn't condone slavery or comdemn it -- it's simply accepted as a social norm, as in Eph. 6:5-9. In contrast, many Northern ministers condemned all slaveholders as guilty of gross sin. Despite the lack of scriptural support, they believed slavery to be against the 'spirit' of Christianity. Of course people argue along the same lines on other topics today.

The more things change....