ABSTRACT

The report of the meeting between Stanton, Sherman and African-American ministers and elders from Savannah churches is revealing of the leadership role of the actively religious in the former slave communities of the South at the close of the war. Their grasp of the political and military situation, confidence that they accurately understood the views of both urban and rural people on the issues raised and their belief that they could produce black recruits for the army by the exercise of their influence, indicate the bases of their crucial role.