Stonewall Jackson: The Black Man's Friend

Richard Williams delivered the dinner speech at the annual Stonewall Jackson Symposium. He talked about his book Stonewall Jackson: The Black Man’s Friend, published by Cumberland House Publishing. Mr. Williams told the story of Civil War General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s religious life and his becoming a Christian during his childhood in Jackson’s Mill, West Virginia, largely due to the influence of the family’s slaves. As an adult Jackson founded the “Colored Sabbath School” in Lexington, Virginia, while on the faculty of the Virginia Military Institute. He taught Sunday school classes at the Sabbath School to both slaves and free blacks, in defiance of local laws and social conventions. There was no question-and-answer session. close