With the conclusion of the Civil War, the beginnings of Reconstruction, and the realities of emancipation, former slaves were confronted with the possibility of freedom and, with it, a new way of life. In The Times Were Strange and Stirring, Reginald F. Hildebrand examines the role of the Methodist Church in the process of emancipation-and in shaping a new world at a unique moment in American, African American, and Methodist history.Hildebrand explores the ideas and ideals of missionaries from several branches of Methodism-the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Colored Met