E. The Camp Meeting Phenomena
1. The Rise of Camp Meetings
some of the Presbyterians were heavily involved in the work of the camp meetings, while others were less eager. He wrote, “Though at the meeting the Methodists appeared to be the most actively engaged in the work, yet some of the Presbyterian brethren engaged heartily, while other stood aloof, not knowing what judgment to form of it.”158
As a general rule, the camp meeting was a natural fit for the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church was already notorious for emphasizing an enthusiastic style of preaching. More significantly, the camp meetings bore a strong resemblance to the quarterly meetings already flourishing in parts of America, as well as to the revivals John Wesley and George Whitefield had conducted in the middle decades of the eighteenth century. And, partially
because of this familiarity, the camp meetings served as one of the most effective tools for Methodist expansions. Methodist camp meetings flourished in the Western Conference through the early decades of the nineteenth century.
the utilization of an almost entirely outdoor setting, and particularly radically examples of religious exercises.
A camp meeting was a protracted affair, lasting several days. The dates of the meeting were generally advertised in local newspapers and in a variety of other fashions. Invariably, the events were held in the Western Conference around harvest time, normally sometime between July and October. Holding the revivals during the fall helped make it possible for people to spend several days away from their farms and livelihoods. The protracted nature of the event, thus, allowed for a very intense “religious retreat” for its attendees. Over the course of the two to three day affair, persons were exposed to a variety of preaching, singing, and prayer services. Thus, they were given extended opportunity to join in the fervor of the crowd and heed the preachers’ call for repentance.
Similarly, the setting for a camp meeting was predominantly outdoors.
The earliest camp meetings occasionally utilized preaching houses, but the size of the crowds quickly made that an ineffective option. And, over time, the site where a camp meeting was to be hosted was carefully chosen in order to create a specific emotional atmosphere. B.W. Gorham’s book, The Camp Meeting Manual, provides rich insight into the work that went on in the planning of camp
meetings. According to Gorham, it was important for preachers to chose sites in areas that were hospitable to the religious gatherings, in order to attract the optimum number of participants and to avoid violent interruptions. Likewise, it was important for the site of a camp meeting to have adequate natural resources to accommodate a large crowd of several thousand people. Finally, there was a liturgical dimension to choosing the site of camp meetings. It was important that when the small trees were removed, the remaining trees formed a covering of
tree limbs over the site, helping to emphasize the contradiction between the darkness of the surrounding forest and the camp meeting site.159
And, camp meetings were known for their excess emotionalism. During camp meetings highly visible displays of emotion were frequently present. While fits of “shouting” or “crying” were well known to Methodists, other more radical religious exercises were less frequently seen. As participants in the revival were convicted of their sinfulness, received forgiveness from their sins, or simply were caught up in the fervor of the event, fits of falling, rolling on the ground,
dancing, jumping, barking, and “the jerks.”160 Jerks were probably the most common action to take place. They developed slowly; for instance, the forearm might begin to twitch, this twitching eventually spread until ever muscle joined in the spasmodic twitching.
While the emotional exercises contributed to the exciting atmosphere of the camp meeting, they were also happenings that led to a significant amount of contention. In some cases, the various exercises were considered involuntary and, at times, not a desired occurrence. Peter Cartwright wrote,
…there was a great deal of sympathetic feeling with many that claimed to be under the influence of the jerking exercise; and yet, with many, it was perfectly involuntary. It was, on all occasions, my practice to recommend fervent prayer as a remedy…161
159 B.W. Gorham, Camp Meeting Manual, a Practice Book for the Camp Ground (Boston: H.V. Degen, 1854), 121. Dickson D. Bruce, Jr. They All Sang Hallelujah:
Plain-Folk Camp-Meeting Religion, 1800-1845 (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1974), 69-70.
160 Bangs, History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 2: 161.
Furthermore, these emotional outbursts invoked anger from many in the surrounding communities. Cartwright recounted a story from an 1804 camp meeting, in which he was forced to talk two brothers out of horsewhipping him;
the brothers blamed Cartwright for giving their sisters the jerks.162
Camp meetings were criticized for a variety of other reasons, as well.
Some critics insisted that camp meetings had become more social than theological affairs. Part of the attraction of camp meetings was their
entertainment or social value. The western country was, at times, an isolating and lonely place for residents. It was not uncommon for their to be a significant geographic distant between the closest residence. As a result, part of the
attraction of the camp meetings was the opportunity for social interaction and entertainment that they provided. In many cases, the affairs took on the form of a religious holiday, providing a place for persons to share in a community event.
The consequence of the social nature of these meetings was that there were behavioral lapses that occurred. Women in the community would use the camp meetings as times to show off their newest dresses. For many young people, the camp meetings became large courting grounds. An Alabama girl wrote that she had acquired “many boy friends” and informed her friend that she and the girls had enjoyed themselves “more than ever before.”