"the preacher in Jackson's office stated that "war would open wounds in this country that would take a hundred generations to heal." I'd say he hit it right on the head."

Yes, he did. Yesterday I was watching CSPAN and caught the last half of a discussion with James Hope Franklin (Prof. Emeratus at Duke University) and Kurt Schmoke (Harvard Law School) at a church in NYC. Dr. Franklin was very specific on the Emancipation Proclamation and it's limits to those states still at war with the Union. He also said the Underground Railroad was a romantic notion, but more slaves got away by running on their own. He admired Lincoln but did say Lincoln had no plan as to the handling of the freed slaves with no where to go. He said that Reconstrucion aided in the continued violence due to that one fact. I was impressed with his views and thoug he was of course saying there was still much to be done for the Blacks, he admitted there were those in the North who were not wanting to aid the former slaves too.
The point he made that stuck most with me was that there was no economic solid ground in the South after the war and that was the catalyst toward much of the antagonism that many Whites felt toward the former slaves.

Pam