"In The Gray and the Black, Robert F. Durden reconstructs the intensely passionate debate that cuts to the heart of what the war was about for the South. Throughout his narrative, Durden lets the participants speak for themselves - in journal extracts, newspaper articles, letters, and speeches. These documents and Durden's perceptive commentary demonstrate with sad finality that, when faced with this ultimate choice, southerners, with certain fascinating exceptions, could not bring themselves to abandon the "peculiar institution.""--BOOK JACKET.