Bethel Ridge: A Historical Novel of the Late Unpleasantness

By C. Leslie Reiter

A religious historical novel about the antebellum South from the viewpoint of a Southern gentleman. Much centers around Bethel Ridge, a typical plantation manor. Two brothers went their separate ways during the Civil War. The country was torn apart by the war, politically, racially, and ecclesiastically.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638742395

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Bethel Ridge

A Historical Novel of the Late Unpleasantness

C. Leslie Reiter

Copyright © 2022 by C. Leslie Reiter

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

To Miss Emma Kleppinger,

my English teacher

who was mainly responsible for my writing this

and who helped me throughout the whole with valuable suggestions

Eastern Pilgrim College, 1950

Preface

This novel I discovered in my attic while sorting through papers I had submitted as partial requirements for classes during my formal education. It is the novel I submitted for my freshmen college course because scoring so high in English on my SAT, my teacher gave me the option of writing a novel or attending classes. I chose to write a novel.

It is a religious, historical novel based on certain aspects of American history. The characters are people with whom I was acquainted, and the circumstances arose out of my experience. The plot, with all its various subplots, is purely imaginary.

I wrote about African Americans using terminology generally employed by good books at the time I was writing. I had had little personal contact with any colored people before I graduated from college. Since then, I have been with many groups of Black people, engaging in many pleasant conversations.

Rereading this paper I wrote in my late teens, I was impressed by two things: my understanding of human nature and my grasp of the world around me.

In redacting this novel, which is the only copy ever made, I have presented it as closely as I could to what I wrote, correcting only obvious typographical mistakes and making it more readable. I cut out certain long sections, placing adverbs in positions preferred today.

First, I reduced the length of the sermons and testimonies. Although, it was common for preachers 150 years ago to give lengthy sermons and for the testimonies of Christians who gave them to cover many aspects of their experiences, I deemed them too long for comfortable reading.

Second, I summarized much of the discussions occurring in the conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The entire discussions set forth more convincingly their long arguments, but they are too boring to read.

In my edited publication, I have rendered the English equivalent of the foreign phrases of the Smith brothers, which intelligent college students are prone to use, making for easier reading. In this redaction, I have kept closely to the manuscript I submitted in 1950, modifying it only as noted above.

I have added a little here and there so the general reader can get a better grasp on the historical circumstances upon which the novel is based. The subtitle was not in the original paper.

Some of the problems the characters struggled with in the novel seem germane today. I publish this hoping to aid in understanding how the problems of this day are similar to those a century and a half ago ecclesiastically, politically, and socially, and looking for the healing of our nation.

East Point, Onancock, Virginia

Chapter 1

It was a warm spring day in the year 1852. Birds were singing as the spring breezes blew among their newly built homes in the treetops. The flowers looked bright and gay, having been refreshed by the heavy dew that had collected on their leaves and petals during the cool night. Excitement played in the air as the voices of many students were gaily mingled with the sounds of nature on the campus of William and Mary College. It was midmorning, and the students were gathering for their daily assembly. These daily gatherings, in which a faculty member usually spoke, were a pleasant relief from the grinding drudgery of classroom work.

Among that number of students were two brothers, William and Philip Smith, familiarly called Bill and Phil. Both were neatly dressed, rather tall, and somewhat thin—that physique that is so becoming to students. As these two approached the auditorium, they were so engaged in conversation that they failed to notice a few wishful glances by some aspiring students of the senior class.

Although they were talking in an undertone, it appeared that they were discussing something both were interested in. Even as they entered the assembly and found their places, they continued. One of them aimlessly glanced up to the platform and there beheld the president. So extraordinary was it to see the head of the school in one of their assemblies that Bill interrupted his brother, bringing the unusual occurrence to his notice. Evidently, there was something important about to occur.

As the two brothers, along with most of the other students, were pondering the situation, the chaplain steeped forward and, after giving the invocation, invited the body to rise and join him in a hymn. Then the president rose, stepped to the rostrum, and began speaking. We are thankful this morning for the goodness of providence to us, for our freedoms as citizens of these United States, and for the liberty to pursue our vocations as we see best. Yet we are all aware of the threatening of some of our fellow citizens who, because it is injurious to their economy, would condemn ours as being immoral. It is because of the impending danger of their attack, because of their lengthy arguments, that I designed that we all should hear a scholarly reply given by our own beloved professor, Thomas Roderick Dew. Professor Dew.

From his students in history, metaphysics, and political law, there was a response of appreciation that met the professor as he rose to speak, for they had often been held spellbound as he lectured to them in class. Now he was about to defend the system which was the very life of the South.

It is said slavery is wrong, in the abstract at least, and contrary to the spirit of Christianity. To this we answer that any question must be determined by its circumstances. And if, as really is the case, we cannot get rid of slavery without producing a greater injury to both the masters and slaves, there is no rule of conscience or revealed law of God which can condemn us. If slavery had commenced even contrary to the laws of God and man and the sin of its introduction rested upon our heads, we would stand guilty of a high offense in the sight of both God and man. But the introduction rests not on our heads, and we shall soon see that all those dreadful calamities which the false prophets of our day are pointing to will never in all probability occur. Here, he paused and looked over his audience.

"With regard to the assertion that slavery is against the spirit of Christianity, we are ready to admit the general assertion but deny most positively that there is anything in the Old or New Testament which would go to show that slavery, when once introduced, ought at all events to be abrogated, or that the master commits any offense in hold slaves.

"The children of Israel themselves were slaveholders and were not condemned for it. Indeed, we can find not one passage in all of Scripture calculated to disturb the conscience of an honest slave. No one can read it without seeing and admiring that the meek and humble Savior of the world in no instance meddled with the established intuitions of mankind. He came to save a fallen world and not to excite the dark passions of men and array then in deadly hostility against each other. From no one did He turn away. His plan was offered to all alike, to the monarch and the subject, the rich and the poor, the master and the slave.

"He was born in the Roman world, a world in which the most galling slavery existed, a thousand times more cruel than the slavery in our own country. And yet He nowhere encourages insurrection. What a rebuke does the practice of the Redeemer of mankind imply upon the conduct of some of his nominal disciples of the day, who seek to destroy the contentment of the slaves, to rouse their most deadly passions, to break up the deep foundations of society, and to lead on to a night