Christianity and America: Group

Presentation THE CIVIL WAR ERA

GROUP D

Christian Perspectives HUM422 – Professor Justin Harbin

And so was life…General Overview of American life during the Civil War

era…

Overall Mood / MindsetThe mood of the country during the Civil War era was one of fear, paranoia and tension.

People from both sides, North and South, were afraid that war would break out and whoever ‘won’ would impose their ideologies onto the other. This is a natural fear of war and usually does result in the losing side having to submit to the winning one.

Many slaveholders were paranoid that the slaves were conspiring against them and thus they became more vigilant in their oppression.

Even though many black slaves were coming to the North for freedom, prejudice was very prominent. White immigrants believed that the freed slaves were now taking jobs.  Riots and fighting against this kind of thought and behavior were common.

All the fear and paranoia created a tension based on racial and social economic differences. Between white and black. Between rich and poor. Between North and South. Ultimately, it came to past and the Civil War began.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America. He was

elected at a time of great tension in the country. The more industrialized and higher populated North was becoming less tolerant of the ways of the South. Lincoln was tasked with bringing a compromise to the growing, yet still fledgling country. In his inaugural

address, Lincoln warned the South: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of

civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in

Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." President Lincoln was determined to keep the country united and

was willing to go to war for the sake of unity. In a twist of irony, Lincoln was assassinated days after the South surrendered and was not able to see the rebuilding of the nation

he put his life into keeping united.

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis was elected as the only President of the Confederate States of

America. He had served in the U. S. Senate after time serving in the military and was considered the best candidate for the job in spite of his lack of desire

for it. Davis was a good compromise for the two opposite ideas concerning the direction of the South after secession.

He was solid in his fight for the cause of the Confederacy and it made him

popular amongst Southerners. However, is inability to lead with clarity

and decisiveness caused a lot of division as well as military failures. In

April 1865, he had to flee his appointed capital of Richmond as the Union Army moved in and he was captured a month later. He served time in prison before living out the rest of his life writing books and touring with speaking

engagements.

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Military LeadershipUlysses S. GrantUnion General

Robert E. LeeConfederate General

EntertainmentEntertainment during this time period was more focused on individual activities or small group games. Reading was very popular. Newspapers, books (especially the Bible) and letters from home kept soldiers distracted from the realities of wartime battle. Music in such as informal singing or scheduled performances was a great way to also lighten the mood. For those wanting a more group activity, board games (like chess or checkers) and card games (like poker) were the choice. For a more athletic twist, soldiers could try baseball (reformatted for the battlefield) or new sports like ice-skating in the winter months. Other widespread and extremely prevalent forms of ‘entertainment’ were gambling, fighting, drinking and carousing with prostitutes for sex.

Social TrendsDue to the war, men left their homes and farms to fight which changed the way society operated in a huge way.  Women were left to care not only for their children but also the farms and property as well. They also became “medical personnel” by making bandages while nursing sick and wounded soldiers.

Cultural Realities from War

There were large causalities from the Civil war; however, death during this era and before was very common.  Death during childhood was a real threat, around 10% of children aged 1-21 years died of a variety of causes.  Infant mortality was 200 to every 1000 live births. In rural areas, the death rate was 15 in 1000 and in urban areas it was 20-40 in 1000. It was noted that many people lived only into their late thirties.

Medical Advancements“Carleton Burgan of Maryland was in terrible shape. The 20-year-old private had survived pneumonia, but the mercury pills he took as a treatment led to gangrene, which quickly spread from his mouth to his eye and led to the removal of his right cheekbone. He was willing to try anything. In a pioneering series of operations in 1862, a surgeon from City Hospital in New York used dental and facial fixtures to fill in the missing bone until Burgan’s face regained its shape. The doctor was Gurdon Buck, now considered the father of modern plastic surgery.” (Mental Floss)

Business / Commerce“The American economy was caught in transition on the eve of the Civil War. What had been an almost purely agricultural economy in 1800 was in the first stages of an industrial revolution which would result in the United States becoming one of the world's leading industrial powers by 1900. But the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the prewar years was almost exclusively limited to the regions north of the Mason-Dixon line, leaving much of the South far behind. New technologies showing America's emerging industrial greatness was refined during the Civil War: the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph and the steam-powered printing press.” (History.com)

Inventions / InnovationsOne of the major inventions of the Civil War era was the telegraph. This invention was a huge advancement in the way people communicated. No longer did they have to wait for a letter to arrive by mail or messenger, they could find out about a situation and respond within a quicker amount of time. According to the Civil War Trust, Abraham Lincoln was the first president who used the telegraph. He was able to get reports from the front lines and strategize with his leadership while making swift decisions. This put the Union Army at a great advantage over the Confederate one and was a reason for many battle victories.

Sola Scriptura…Christianity in America Overview during the Civil War

era…

Church Attendance

At the start of the Civil War, there were more than 53,000 churches

in the United States. Although only about 40 percent of the

nation’s almost 32 million people were formal members of

organized faith traditions, as many as 80 percent of Americans

visited Catholic or denominationally Protestant

churches regularly.

Battlefield ReligionAway from the home front, men in both Union and Confederate armies were resigned to divine but unalterable providence and certain of a heavenly afterlife; both beliefs made them better soldiers, as military commanders knew and played upon.

Religious IdeologyIn one way or another, then, wartime Americans viewed the Civil War through the lens of religion and saw it as a prerequisite for a coming age of peace, prosperity and spiritual harmony.

Wartime Religious Mindset

Perhaps most importantly, in both the Union and the Confederacy, religion provided a way for men and women to make sense of the unimaginable suffering wrought by the war. Millennialism, a belief in the imminent earthly reign of Christ, was the dominant theme of mid-19th century Christianity. Books have been written about how popular the idea was at the time.

Post-MillennialismMost in the North were post-millennialists and believed that the gradual defeat of evil and perfection of humanity would facilitate Christ’s return (post-millennialism helps explain the emergence of so many northern reform movements during the age). These individuals thought of the war as a means of eradicating slavery and other impediments to the establishment of Christ’s new order.

Pre-MillennialismA minority of northerners and southerners were pre-millennialists who believed apocalyptic destruction must precede the new Christly kingdom, a kind of purification through fire. Because of its “New England” origins, many southern Christians eschewed millennialism thought in all of its forms but believed the southern slave society was unequalled in its Christian sublimity, and thus, any sacrifice offered in its defense was warranted.

Societal Influence

In the last decades of the antebellum age, religion played an increasingly formative role in American society, so much so that even avowed secularists could not escape its cultural

influence.

Christianity was the dominant religion of the society and with

most people having been raised with the influence of the Bible,

they sought spiritual guidance in the most natural way possible –

at their local church.

Strength of FaithWhen word of Fort Sumter’s fall spread throughout the divided country, religion shaped the way in which most people received and interpreted the news. When the war grew bloody beyond all expectations, faith helped Americans make sense of it all.

Loss of Spiritual Zealat War’s End

By the war’s close, the spiritual zeal of the American people had taken a considerable hit, and ethical scientism and societal secularization further lessened the church’s role (though not its size) in American society in the post-war decades. But during the Civil War, religion shaped American life in a unique and profound way.

Reconstruction Religion“Many Americans interpreted great events in religious terms. Historian Wilson Fallin contrasts the interpretation of Civil War and Reconstruction in white versus black Baptist sermons in Alabama. White Baptists expressed the view that:

God had chastised them and given them a special mission – to maintain orthodoxy, strict biblicism, personal piety, and traditional race relations. Slavery, they insisted, had not been sinful. Rather, emancipation was a historical tragedy and the end of Reconstruction was a clear sign of God's favor.

In sharp contrast, Black Baptists interpreted the Civil War, emancipation and Reconstruction as:

God's gift of freedom. They appreciated opportunities to exercise their independence, to worship in their own way, to affirm their worth and dignity, and to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Most of all, they could form their own churches, associations, and conventions. These institutions offered self-help and racial uplift, and provided places where the gospel of liberation could be proclaimed. As a result, black preachers continued to insist that God would protect and help him; God would be there rock in a stormy land.” (Fallin)

IMHO…Analysis of the Civil War era…

Wartime Revival“Major revivals broke out in the Civil War armies. In the Union Army, between 100,000 and 200,000 soldiers were converted; among Confederate forces, approximately 150,000 troops converted to Christ. Perhaps 10 percent of all Civil War soldiers experienced conversions during the conflict.” (Christianity Today)

End of SlaveryThe Civil War brought a lot of changes to this country. First, was the end of slavery. During the Reconstruction, we tried to give freed slaves rights and this didn’t go over too well with Southern plantation owners.

Racism

Second, was the birth of white supremacists

groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Many of the white Southerners did

not want black people to have the same rights as a white people because

they saw them as an inferior race.

Death of a President

Third, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

allowed Andrew Johnson to bring about his own changes to the rebuilding of the nation during Reconstruction

instead of the wishes or plans of his predecessor.

Law… Jim Crow Style

After the war ended and Reconstruction was underway, many white Southerners were

not willing to give up their ideologies so easy. Slavery may

have ceased, but racism was alive and well. For those who did

not want to be too extreme about it, they decided to

segregate using the rule of law. Integration was not going to

happen so easy.

Rise in Black ChurchesThe end of the Civil War and Reconstruction gave rise to many predominantly black-led congregations. Under the old rule, many slaves were limited in their ability to worship without supervision. This ended with the war and churches with an all-black membership were able to freely worship.

Migration to the North

After the war, many former slaves needed to work and

support their families. They could not do it in a racist and

segregated South. They decided to go North to the places that had jobs, freedom and more of

an attitude that might be friendlier after such a hard

fought war. Cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and New

York City were springing up new neighborhoods that were

predominantly black.

America in DebtThe Civil War was extremely costly to the nation. Before the war began, America was paying off it’s extremely low debt of around $65 million. After the war, our nation’s debt stood at over $2.7 billion! Yet, from 1866 to 1863, the government was able to slash $1.7 billion from our national debt and bring it to $961 million.

Post-War EconomyAfter the Civil War, the economy of the South was devastated. They could only try to rebuild and get back to the agricultural-driven means of living. The North on the other hand was going through an industrial revolution and posed for a quick comeback. Flush with a growing population and expansion mindset, the North faired much better in the decades to follow then their Southern counterparts.

Lasting ImpactThe lasting impact on the Civil War was enormous to this country. It resulted in more deaths of American soldiers than any other war in history. It divided our country in a way that still lingers in Northern mentality versus Southern mentality. It set the stage for us to deal with the ugly blight of racism that was (and still is in some measure) deep-seated in the roots of this nation. The church and Christianity as a whole was politicized by both sides which has become the norm – no longer is it simply the Biblical truth side. Finally, it exposed our weakness to greed and financial gain at the cost of those who are suppose to be our brothers, sisters and friends. It cost a man who wanted to see a united nation of free men, women and children his life which shows the sin nature is alive and well and willing to kill even if it’s wrong.

Works Cited(Title Page Image) A Battle Among Brothers. Digital image. Important People from the Civil War Era. Mrkash.com, n.d. Web. 26 June 2015.

"Christianity and the Civil War." Christian History. Christianitytoday.com, 1 Jan. 1992. Web. 28 June 2015.

Fallin, Wilson, Jr. Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama. N.p.: n.p., 2007. Print.

Folsom, Burton. "The Economic Costs of the Civil War." The Freeman. Foundation for Economic Education, 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 June 2015.

Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. "Abraham Lincoln." Presidents of the United States of America. Whitehouse.gov, 2006. Web. 27 June 2015.

History.com Staff. "Civil War Technology." History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Web. 27 June 2015.

Works Cited"Jefferson Davis." Civilwar.org. Civil War Trust, 2014. Web. 27 June 2015.

Leidner, Gordon. "Religious Revival in Civil War Armies." Great American History. Greatamericanhistory.net, n.d. Web. 28 June 2015.

"Pastimes of the 1860's." Civilwar.org. Civil War Trust, 2014. Web. 27 June 2015.

Rowe, Chip. "5 Medical Innovations of the Civil War." Mental Floss. N.p., 9 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 June 2015.

"The Pre-Civil War Era." SparkNotes. Sparksnotes.com, n.d. Web. 28 June 2015.

Wesley, Timothy. "Role of Religion." 150 Pennsylvania Civil War. Pacivilwar150.com, 2010-2103. Web. 28 June 2015.

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