whether you ever said it in so many words, but you intimated that slavery would
exist again."13
Magan seemed to recall a statement or reference made by Ellen White at an
earlier time.* It is significant that a little later in the interview he
compared his recollected "race war" statement with the "slavery" statement, and,
as we shall see, Ellen White made the same comparison herself.
Following Magan's statement, and without responding directly to his recol-
lection, Ellen White explained the essence of what he was referring to, by
saying:
Just as soon as people begin to make any kind of movement to
educate blacks, there are some who are determined that it shall not
be done.l4
Here Ellen White connected Magan's reference of the "race war"/"slavery" state-
ment with the opposition that would be exerted as soon as there were efforts to
"educate" or better the condition of blacks.
Magan went on to elaborate on this same thought by giving a case at hand,
then referred to a well-circulated Tine of thinking that shows the implications
of this opposition: |
It is the common talk all over the South that there will be a race
war within the next few years. Senator Tillman has talked it in the
house. Governor elect Hoke Smith, and Tillman have published a plan
*It 1s of interest to note that 12 years earlier Ellen White made a similar
statement in what has come to be known as the Armadale interview, November 20,
1895. When being questioned by some church leaders as to the Sabbath/Sunday
issue and the Black work, she said: "Slavery will again be revived in the
Southern states; for the spirit of slavery still lives." When printing Southern
Work it was thought best to leave out this statement. It has since been
released in the shelf document entitled, "Comments on the Ellen G. White State-
ments Relative to the Revival of Slavery," October 17, 1953, (pp. 4, 14). This
reference, or one similar to it, was no doubt what Magan was referring to.