Jackson's relation with slaves

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STONEWALL JACKSON: THE BLACK MAN'S FRIEND

By Richard G. Williams Jr., Cumberland House Publishing, $20.95, 224 pages, illustrated

Just when you thought there was nothing left to write about Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, along comes this book by Richard G. Williams Jr.

It is the story of Jackson's desire to bring the word of God to the slaves of the antebellum era.

Historians have long struggled with the mystery of a man who came from a slaveholding family, owned slaves himself, and yet broke the prevailing law of Virginia to conduct a weekly Colored Sabbath School, where slaves were taught to read and write while also being brought to a personal knowledge of the Christ of Jackson's heart and soul.

Mr. Williams' book follows Jackson through an orphanlike childhood and his devotion to "Miss Fanny," a slave who raised him; to his teenage years; and on to West Point and the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. Each aspect of his life demonstrates his relationships with the slave families to which he was exposed.

Jackson struggled with the morality of a system that enslaved men and women with whom he shared a brotherhood as children of a loving God. Yet those same Scriptures that taught salvation also recorded centuries of slaveholding all over the world, which provided Jackson with the simplistic rationale that if it was condoned by the Bible, it must be acceptable.

Mr. Williams points out that Jackson and any other figure of that era must be viewed in the context of the 19th century rather than being judged by the standards of the 21st century, a mistake made by many when focusing on the "peculiar institution."

The book is well researched and comprehensive, ranging from actual correspondence of Jackson and his contemporaries to written material about the slave trade. It includes material from black writers such as Ervin Jordan of the University of Virginia and Carter G. Woodson, considered the father of Black History Month. Eminent Jackson biographer James I. Robertson Jr. provides an excellent foreword.