Thanks, that helps a lot.

I have been working on certain theories that he was religious and a “literary feller”. The first may have come from his background from way back in the family and the second from also way back and which may have marked him out for what he became. It seems he was a reader and may have to some extent involved the family in which he grew up within.

The topic of which Frederick Douglas talked of at Arbroath was the “free” Church of Scotland and support the church gave for slavery at the time and the collection of money from the slave owners for the “upkeep” of that church in Scotland. Douglas was deeply angry and offended by the “free” Church and the sending of representatives to the plantations in the American South to collect such money. He made much of the term “free” and his desire for “freedom” of slaves.

If Moonlight was aware and one of the “wide awake”, he may have been impressed by such a distinction as the “free Church” had broken away from the traditional Church of Scotland. If Moonlight had read the local newspapers I am sure he would have had an opinion of such “liberty”! However the term “if” is a big work in this sense.

Liberty, freedom, religion, opinion, Kansas, Honey Springs, Moonlight, and his past seem to be connected. A dangerous combination in certain situations.

Thanks again,

Graham Duncan