Taylor descendants claim benevolent plantation Christianity converted northern abolitionists like Daniel Webster

Evidence

Dr. Taylor went on to explain how his ancestors had traveled throughout the South establishing Christian churches. He also said that the Taylors and those they enslaved were one family who worshipped together. He unabashedly explained that this Christian approach to slavery captured the attention of northern politicians and changed the hearts and minds of many abolitionists—including Daniel Webster. … No relation to the textbook pioneer Noah Webster, Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire in 1782 and lived in Massachusetts as a constitutional lawyer, member of Congress, United States senator, secretary of state, and purported abolitionist. He was also a man who would be president. In 1839 Webster declined the nomination for vice president; but President William Henry Harrison died one month after his inauguration. Webster would have ascended to the office of the United States president had he accepted the nomination. He was a dominant political figure in the North, and he was also the invited guest of the slaveholder Benjamin Franklin Taylor in the South. Dr. Edmund Taylor explained that his ancestors were “benevolent Christians” who treated their enslaved with “dignity and respect.” … The Taylors established Christian churches in Columbia and always supported them. Religion exerted a strong influence on their attitudes and practices towards their servants. Colonel Thomas Taylor’s son, Benjamin Franklin, sheds light on the question and apparently was in the middle of the slavery issue of the day, dying in 1852. Daniel Webster is said to have visited his plantation, EdgeHill, to study slavery and after which he ceased to speak against it in the United States Senate. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 480

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is there independent historical evidence Daniel Webster actually visited EdgeHill and ceased speaking against slavery, or is this a Taylor family tradition? The 1852 death date raises a natural check against Webster’s own record.