Finally, we want to briefly note that the religious climate was one of extreme tension for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, due to the Sunday/Sabbath question. This issue is succinctly summed up in the White Estate shelf document, “Comments Relative to the Revival of Slavery.” In reference to the work being done by Edson White and his missionary riverboat, Morning Star, among the blacks of the South, it went on to say: EGWUTRW 23.5
This was just at a time when a number of Seventh-day Adventists were having serious problems in the South because of their violation of the state Sunday laws. Some were imprisoned or placed in chain-gangs. Among us there were some differences of opinions as to just what attitude we should take under such circumstances. Some felt that we must show our faith by doing manual labor in the sight of others on Sunday so that they would know where we stood. Others took the chopping-block out near the street and split wood on Sunday morning. Some of our sisters hung out their washing on that day. Now with a work beginning among the colored people, Seventh-day Adventist leaders faced this question: What counsel shall we give to these new believers in this tense region of North America? 47White Estate Document, Comments Relative to the Revival of Slavery (Monograph), p.3. In subsequent references this document will be notated as Comments Relative to Slavery.
It is obvious that the religious issue was compounded on the color question. On one hand it was like walking on a bed of pins and needles, and on the other hand it was like walking a tightrope. Though the slaves had been freed in the 1860’s, not until the mid-1890’s was any serious work done by the Adventists in the South, and, as we have seen earlier, by that time segregationism had settled and taken roots. This made the church’s work precarious, and it also made the converted black’s role doubly dangerous. EGWUTRW 24.1
So it was in the midst not only of racial tension but of religious tension, that Ellen White spoke of “slavery” and “race war.” There were problems, yes; but she urged the church to move quickly to do evangelistic work quietly in the South because there were more difficulties to come (see The Southern Work, 63-65). She said during the Armadale interview in Australia (November 20, 1895) that: EGWUTRW 24.2
When the truth is proclaimed in the South, a marked difference will be shown by those who oppose the truth in their greater regard for Sunday, and great care must be exercised, not to do anything to arouse their prejudice. Otherwise, we may just as well leave the field entirely, for the workers will have all the white people against them. Those who oppose the truth will not work openly, but through secret organizations, and they will seek to hinder the work in every possible way. 48The Southern Work, 67.
True to form, God was warning His church of what was yet to come (see 2 Peter 1:19). EGWUTRW 25.1