Frank Buffalo
Member
The most famous/infamous early 19th-century Christian revival meeting in the United States was at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in August 1801, organized by Barton Stone, a sober Presbyterian. There, numerous Baptist and Methodists preachers exhorted some 20,000 people to come to Jesus, and the response was wild.1 During a week of preaching and outrageous conversions, many people took to singing, dancing, laughing, barking like dogs, rolling on the ground, and jerking their bodies around.2, 3 The practice of people getting down on all fours, barking, and running toward trees as if they were chasing opossums was referred to as “treeing the devil”.4 At the meeting’s fringes, meanwhile, people drank alcohol and had sex.5 In the many revivals that followed the Cane Ridge kickoff meeting, the wild behavior continued, including alcohol drinking and sexual activities at the outer reaches of meetings.6 Wherever there’s a boisterous party, well, there’s a boisterous party.
Recall that some of these behaviors, like jerking bodies around, barking like dogs, getting down on all fours, and screaming, were found among the Salem witch trial girls who claimed to be tormented by the accused witches. The ongoing need for emotionally wild expression was obvious. Whether the cause was holy or unholy didn’t seem to make much difference in the outbursts themselves. Was it just an outcome of cultural/social/psychological stress?
Ann Taves, author of the very thought-provoking book Fits, Trances, & Visions, tells the story of a former preacher, Sunderland, who experimented with mesmerism and magnetism. He gave lectures using mesmeric techniques and found his audiences acting much as he had seen people act at evangelistic meetings, coming up to the stage as they would to an altar call, and having such religious experiences as seeing angels and singing songs. Sunderland saw these as psychological rather than religious phenomena.7 He came to see trance as a self-induced state, reflecting the power of attention.8 The entranced wanted to be entranced.
The Cane Ridge revival kicked off a massive growth of Methodists from 3,000 to more than 30,000 in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee during the first dozen years of the 19th century. And elsewhere they grew even more, to 80,000 in areas of what was then considered the southwest.9 The Baptists, a small group during Revolutionary War years,10 likewise grew enormously in numbers. They eventually dominated the deep south, except for pockets of Roman Catholics in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.11 The Methodists moved more westerly, from Baltimore to Kansas and throughout the border states.12
The new wave of evangelists tended to be “free-will” Arminian, meaning they thought every person was free to make a choice about seeking salvation from Jesus—or not.13 They had originally entered America among New England Congregationalists.14 They did not see the point of the Calvinistic belief in predestination, in which God alone chooses whom to save, and enables only chosen people to successfully seek conversion. These Arminian evangelists also tended to have more success in the growing western areas than in the south, at least at first. The south was resistant to anything that might upset their social order of whites over African Americans, men over women, older people over youth, etc.15 So southerners were suspicious of all that “free will” being promoted, along with the idea that anyone could be authoritatively inspired directly by god. This contrasts with a later image of the south as full of tent revivals, holy rollers, etc., which eventually did come into being.
1. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:129.
2. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:596.
3. Ahlstrom, Sidney. A Religious History:432-435.
4. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:130.
5. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:597.
6. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:130.
7. Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, & Visions:147.
8. Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, & Visions:204.
9. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:597.
10. Marty, Martin. Pilgrims in Their Own Land:150.
11. Ibid., 175.
12. Ibid., 175.
13. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:604.
14. Marty, Martin. Pilgrims in Their Own Land:133.
15. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:605-606.
What do you make of this piece of history?
Recall that some of these behaviors, like jerking bodies around, barking like dogs, getting down on all fours, and screaming, were found among the Salem witch trial girls who claimed to be tormented by the accused witches. The ongoing need for emotionally wild expression was obvious. Whether the cause was holy or unholy didn’t seem to make much difference in the outbursts themselves. Was it just an outcome of cultural/social/psychological stress?
Ann Taves, author of the very thought-provoking book Fits, Trances, & Visions, tells the story of a former preacher, Sunderland, who experimented with mesmerism and magnetism. He gave lectures using mesmeric techniques and found his audiences acting much as he had seen people act at evangelistic meetings, coming up to the stage as they would to an altar call, and having such religious experiences as seeing angels and singing songs. Sunderland saw these as psychological rather than religious phenomena.7 He came to see trance as a self-induced state, reflecting the power of attention.8 The entranced wanted to be entranced.
The Cane Ridge revival kicked off a massive growth of Methodists from 3,000 to more than 30,000 in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee during the first dozen years of the 19th century. And elsewhere they grew even more, to 80,000 in areas of what was then considered the southwest.9 The Baptists, a small group during Revolutionary War years,10 likewise grew enormously in numbers. They eventually dominated the deep south, except for pockets of Roman Catholics in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.11 The Methodists moved more westerly, from Baltimore to Kansas and throughout the border states.12
The new wave of evangelists tended to be “free-will” Arminian, meaning they thought every person was free to make a choice about seeking salvation from Jesus—or not.13 They had originally entered America among New England Congregationalists.14 They did not see the point of the Calvinistic belief in predestination, in which God alone chooses whom to save, and enables only chosen people to successfully seek conversion. These Arminian evangelists also tended to have more success in the growing western areas than in the south, at least at first. The south was resistant to anything that might upset their social order of whites over African Americans, men over women, older people over youth, etc.15 So southerners were suspicious of all that “free will” being promoted, along with the idea that anyone could be authoritatively inspired directly by god. This contrasts with a later image of the south as full of tent revivals, holy rollers, etc., which eventually did come into being.
1. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:129.
2. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:596.
3. Ahlstrom, Sidney. A Religious History:432-435.
4. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:130.
5. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:597.
6. Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant:130.
7. Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, & Visions:147.
8. Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, & Visions:204.
9. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:597.
10. Marty, Martin. Pilgrims in Their Own Land:150.
11. Ibid., 175.
12. Ibid., 175.
13. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:604.
14. Marty, Martin. Pilgrims in Their Own Land:133.
15. Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty:605-606.
What do you make of this piece of history?
