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The Civil War still stands as America’s darkest hour. One in five Confederate men of fighting age died, probably as many from disease and broken hearts as from bullets. If defeat wasn’t bad enough, Sherman’s scorched earth March to the Sea assured dreadful poverty and social disruption ensued for years to come. There could only…

The Civil War tested Mennonite’s peaceful orientation once again. Mennonites in Virginia refused to own slaves and most opposed the war. Yet they found it impossible to stay out of the contentious debate engulfing Virginia. One instance is instructive. On the rural frontier, Mennonites often helped their slave-holding neighbors with harvest. In return the neighbor…

In the early colonial period Mennonites voted. They voted as a block with the Quakers to keep the Quaker party in control of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Under the Friends political umbrella, things went rather swimmingly for Mennonites. When, as a result of political upheaval and uncertainty, Mennonites quit voting the ‘Presbyterians’ gained control of the…