Replies

Re: "For some reason, people want to concentrate only on slavery and only in the American South. The reason is obvious. They aren't really interested in doing good, they are interested in attacking their neighbor while overlooking their own evil."

I think you are right but that is why a detailed understanding of American slavery is very valuable. It is a fine example of how good people can do bad things to their fellow man. Even the side that shows how "slaves were not treated so badly" serve the moral lesson. You can not make good out of bad. This is the point I have been trying to drive home. Good people tried to be fair and kind to their "people" but as Stowe illustrated it was not possible to make right something so wrong.

One thing that your post reminds me about and I have very little information is the role of the Vatican. A visiting French seminarian told me about the Pope's support for the South. This seems odd because the Church had a history of discouraging slavery and attacking it at points (such as the early Spanish settlements in the New World when they tried to enslave the Indians) So why the seeming change? Why support the South? He told me the Vatican saw the war against the South as about much more than Slavery. They saw it as an attack against the family and a stable agricultural way of life. A masonic plot to destroy a Christian bastion. Keep in mind the South also had the largest Catholic population at the time. I have not had time to explore more. Can anyone shed light on the Vatican's role?