Table Of ContentThe Gospel Working Up:
Progress and the Pulpit in
Nineteenth-Century Virgina
BETH BARTON SCHWEIGER
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
the gospel working up
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T G W U
he ospel orking p
Progress and the Pulpit in
Nineteenth-Century Virginia
BETH BARTON SCHWEIGER
New York Oxford
Oxford UniversityPress
2000
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1.Virginia—Churchhistory—19thcentury. 2.Baptists—Virginia—
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and in memory of Kevin,
who did not go gentle
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Preface
‘‘Up’’may be the wrong direction.
—WendellBerry
T
he renowned nineteenth-century evangelist Sam Jones’s grandmother
read the Bible through thirty-seven times on her knees. In Flannery
O’Connor’s view, the South—rural, small town, and city—was ‘‘made up of
descendants of old ladies like her.Youdon’tshakeofftheirinfluenceineven
several generations.’’ I began this book in the belief that Sam Jones’s grand-
motherexperiencedsomethingabouttheSouththatismissinginitshistories.
And in studying the sources, I found that what we know about the mystery
and manners of Southern religion we have learned more from writers like
O’Connorthan from historians.
Thisbookdescribesoneofthemainreligiousmannersofthenineteenth-
centurySouth.TheGospel‘‘workedup’’—thatis,convertsthoughtitimproved
everything it touched. They believed that it worked up mysteriously of itself,
like a physical principle. True religion not only brought progress, it was the
main source of progress in their world—spiritual, moral, and material—and
itdidnotencourageconvertstodistinguishbetweenthethree.ButtheGospel
‘‘worked up’’ in another way. It stirred people to act. The men andwomenin
this study worked very hard. Though they considered their work ‘‘Southern,’’
likemostotherAmericanstheyneveraskedwhether‘‘up’’wastherightdirec-
tion.
The goal of their work was not the top of society. Their aspirations had
clearlimits,mainlybecausetheysucceededsowell.Bytheendofthecentury,
church leaders were largely satisfied with their own progress up and out of
thefields.Theirmainworrywasovertheruralrankandfiletheyleftbehind.
Nor did pastors work up together. The nineteenth-century pastorateem-
bracedavarietyofmenandmotives.Ithingedonnegotiation—betweenthem-
selves and those in the pew. Clerical authorityintheSouthwasfraughtwith
tension.Itrequiredconstantvigilanceincongregationswheretheboundaries
betweenleaderandpeoplewerepermeable.Thisisnotastoryofinstitutional
religion versus popular religion, priests versus people. Instead, itisastoryof
viii Preface
popular institutions headed by pastors who wielded an authority rooted in
consensus.Manyinthepewsharedpastors’beliefinreligionasprogress,but
not all pastors had equal influence in the institutional church. Power both
within the larger denominationandwithinindividualcongregationswasfluid
inwaysthatdisturbedtheseleaders,whostrovefororderandstabilityintheir
churches and in their own professionallives.
Thebeliefinreligionasprogressbroughtinstabilitybeyonddividingwhite
pastors and congregations. It also widened the breach between already es-
tranged white and black Protestants. The very success of the Gospel among
slavesandfreeblacks—forwhom,mostwhiteswereconvinced,religioncould
bringneithersocial,intellectual,normaterialprogress—raisedtroublingques-
tions among those for whom racial inequality was just as firm a principle as
progressive religion. Ironically, white Southern preachers became thevictims
of their own success. By the end of the century, the wealthy denominations
thattheybelievedwouldwidentheirauthorityinSouthernsocietyonlylimited
it. Pastors found that they administered increasingly insular bureaucracies
that choked off their influencein societyat large.
Much that is important about religion in the South does not appear in
these pages. I have not fully explored how religion may have shaped the as-
pirationsofAfrican-Americansorwomen.Thegrowthofreligiousinstitutions
on both sides of the color line shows, as so many things in Southernlifedo,
howblackandwhiteSouthernersmovedinthesamedirectionseparately.That
religion was a critical source of aspiration for Southerners of all races, and
thatitmovedtheminthesamedirection,isapointforfurtherstudy.Although
the male clerical profession gained a new, more systematickindofcontrolin
religious life, women (who were two-thirds of the congregations) and what
they understood to be ‘‘women’s concerns’’ increasingly defined the terms of
that control. A fuller understanding of how these changes affected women
andhowwomenshapedtheirchurchesawaitsfurtherstudy.OtherProtestant
traditions—particularly the Presbyterian and Episcopalian—were, of course,
crucial tothe religious cultureoftheSouth.Buttheirgenerallyhighersocial
status meant that they were not as eager to better themselves as the Meth-
odists and BaptistsI have studied here.
It is a genuine pleasure to thank the many people who have helped me with
thisbook.MyresearchwassupportedbytheCorcoranDepartmentofHistory
attheUniversityofVirginia,theCongregationalHistoryProjectoftheDivinity
School at the University of Chicago, the Institute for the Study of American
EvangelicalsatWheatonCollege,andthePewPrograminReligionandAmer-
ican Historyat Yale University.
I relied on the diligence and expertise of archivists and librarians at Al-
derman Library of the University of Virginia, McGraw-Page Library at
Randolph-Macon College, the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and Boat-
wright Memorial Library at the University of Richmond, the Virginia His-
torical Society, the Library of Virginia, the Southern Historical Collectionat
Preface ix
the University of North Carolina, William Smith Morton Library at Union
TheologicalSeminary of Virginia,and Ferrum College.
Edward L. Ayers was an exemplary mentor over the long course of this
study, and he has seen it through with grace and good cheer. I am grateful
for the exacting standards of humane scholarship he set for me from the
beginning. Many friends and colleagues generously read and commented on
conference papers and drafts: Donald G. Mathews, TedOwnby,JanetteTho-
mas Greenwood, John C. Willis, Lawrence Hartzell, Gaines Foster, Bill J.
Leonard, Samuel S. Hill, Samuel C. Shepherd, Robert D. Cross, Joseph F.
Kett, James Davison Hunter, Catherine O’Brion, Harry S. Stout, Eugene D.
Genovese, Lendol Calder, Timothy Hall, Anne Loveland, James O. Farmer,
Charles Reagan Wilson,and David G. Hackett.
I am grateful for conversation and correspondence with E. Brooks Holi-
field,R.StephenWarner,JohnBoles,MarkNoll,WilliamA.Link,RobertM.
Calhoon, John Quist, Anne Rubin, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Daniel Stowell,
Jewel Spangler, Briane Turley, Gregory A. Wills, Michael O’Brien,StevenM.
Stowe, David Moltke-Hansen, Daniel Woods, and the historians’ seminar of
the Young Scholars in American Religion at the University of NotreDame—
Karin Gedge, Phil Gleason,Eugene McCarraher,LindaPrzybyszewski,Kath-
leen Riley, James Treat, Roberto Trevino,Beth Wenger, and David Yoo.
AgiftedandkindcohortofhistorianswhomaketheirhomesinRichmond
or who did research here have offered conversation and encouragement at
critical times. I thank Hampton Carey, Peter Carmichael, Michael Fellman,
Tony Iaccarino, Gregg D. Kimball, John Kneebone, Blair A. Pogue, Brent
Tarter, and Sandy Treadway.
I have my grandparents, John Allen and Edna Gist Barton, and my par-
ents,JohnAllenandPatriciaLawsheBarton,tothankforCentralTexastomb-
stonesandGeorgeWashington’sdentures.Theirinsistencethatthepastmat-
ters took deep root and has borne fruit in this work. Mitchell Snay, Tatiana
van Riemsdijk,andPaulHarveyamiablyplowedthroughlargechunksofthis
study in amazingly short time and offered both practical advice and enthusi-
asm. Suzanne Wolk edited the manuscript, and it is much better for her ex-
acting care. Cynthia A. Read and MaryBeth Branigan of Oxford University
Press have been skilled guides throughthe perils of publishing.
ImetKurtBerendsinthefinalstagesofthiswork,buthisfriendshipand
expertise have proven invaluable. David L. Chappell has proven his mettle
mainly through his relentless reading of what I have written. Mary Mc-
Laughlin has helped me to see differently. Elisabeth W. Sommer has been
unfailingly interested in my ideas for many years, and I havebenefitedmuch
from her knowledge, encouragement, and friendship. Elizabeth Kurtz Lynch
provided clean linens, hot coffee, and regular updates on her own work on
SusannaWesley,inadditiontoheruncommongoodsenseaboutthepastand
many other things.
Thomas A. J. Schweiger has lived with this book from its beginning and
hasbeenthebedrocksupportingitinsomanylovingways.MargaretEleanor
