Chapter 2 discloses that intra-denominational and intra-congregational strife over African American bondage became most intense when it implicated the conflicting claims of urban middle-class congregants over church-owned property. Divergent views on the morality of slavery underlay evangelical strife. But the determination of antagonistic middle-class congregational factions to retain ownership of disputed church lands and buildings made splits within local religious societies and denominations highly contentious public altercations. Central to this chapter, furthermore, is the argument that benevolent women, especially in town-dwelling congregations, had vital stakes in disputed church lands, buildings, and schools, and that these women sometimes played key roles in factional contests.