Class differences once divided Protestant denominations. Denominations are less important now, but no doubt class and other qualities still divide churches.
Willa Cather (1873-1947), best known for her novels about frontier Nebraska, in 1940 wrote Saphira and the Slave Girl. It’s set in 1850s Virginia west of the Shenandoah Valley near what’s now West Virginia. Cather spent her first nine years there until her family moved to Nebraska. It’s essentially a recall of her early girlhood and the stories she heard from family. I spend time in this area and am enjoyably recognizing many scenes. Cather’s church still stands, now Methodist but Baptist in her time. It appears in the novel.
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