MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY

This is an account, documented from old family letters, of a fragile but indomitable Southern lady who gave five sons to the Confederate Army, but fought slavery unremittingly. Written by her great grandson, it reveals a side of Southern thinking that will surprise many- for the Blackfords, whose story this is, sold their family estates in order not to put a single slave on the block and felt that slavery was ""unchristian"". Mary Berkley Minor Blackford did even more. She was one of the founding members of the American Colonization Society which helped pay the fare of any freed Negro who wished to return to Africa. She reared her sons in her own image, fought for Negro education, and felt that she had ""seen the glory"" when she observed a group of Negro children singing on the streets of Fredericksburg in 1866... There are many new insights here on an old issue- which the general public may not care to revive- but which will find a place as an authentic document of the times.