New York's Burned-over District : A Documentary History / edited by Spencer W. McBride and Jennifer Hull Dorsey.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McBride, Spencer W., editor.

Dorsey, Jennifer Hull, 1969- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christianity--New York (State)--Influence.

Christianity.

Social reformers--New York (State)--History--19th century.

Social reformers.

New York (State)--Church history--19th century.

New York (State).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (420 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, [2023]

Summary:

In New York's Burned-over District, Spencer W. McBride and Jennifer Hull Dorsey invite readers to experience the early American revivals and reform movements through the eyes of the revivalists and the reformers themselves. Between 1790 and 1860, the mass migration of white settlers into New York State contributed to a historic Christian revival. This renewed spiritual interest and fervor occurred in particularly high concentration in central and western New York where men and women actively sought spiritual awakening and new religious affiliation. Contemporary observers referred to the region as "burnt" or "infected" with religious enthusiasm; historians now refer to as the Burned-over District. New York's Burned-over District highlights how Christian revivalism transformed the region into a critical hub of social reform in nineteenth-century America. An invaluable compendium of primary sources, this anthology revises standard interpretations of the Burned-over District and shows how the putative grassroots movements of the era were often coordinated and regulated by established religious leaders.

Contents:

New York's Burned-Over District

Contents

Editorial Method

Introduction

Part I: Settlement

1. Treaty with the Six Nations

2. A General View of New York

3. New York Population Growth

4. New York's Environmental Transformation

Part II: Missionaries

5. Timothy Mather Cooley's Missionary Journal

6. Rev. Jacob Cram's Mission

7. Sagoyewatha's Reply to Rev. Jacob Cram

8. Constitution of the Waterloo Missionary Society

9. Reports of Episcopal Missionaries

10. Missionaries to Sailors and Canal Workers

Part III: Revivals

11. Charles Finney's Argument for Religious Revivals

12. Revivals at Marcellus and Amber

13. Report of New York Revivals

14. Bradford King's Conversion

15. Nancy Alexander Tracy's Conversion

16. A Convention to Regulate Revivals

17. Theodore Weld on a Revival's Aftermath

18. Theodore Weld on Revivals and Women's Rights

19. The Grimké Sisters on the Limits of Revivalism and Reform

Part IV: Church Development

20. Brothertown and Religious Autonomy

21. A Baptist Constitution

22. Baptist Trustee Minutes

23. Methodist Population Report

24. Proposal for a Methodist College

25. Building the First Wesleyan Methodist Church of Seneca Falls

26. The Growth of Presbyterianism in the Synod of Geneva

27. A Presbyterian Congregation's Confession of Faith and Covenant

28. Race and Ministry in Wayne County

Part V: Kingdoms of God

29. Joseph Smith's Visions

30. Mormonism's Early Critics

31. Parley P. Pratt Encounters the Book of Mormon

32. William Miller's Biblical Calculations

33. William Miller Defends His Prediction

34. A Historical Rebuttal of Millerism

35. Matthias the Prophet

Part VI: Intentional Communities

36. Shaker Charity

37. The Church Family at Watervliet

38. Account of the Shaker Settlement of Sodus Bay.

39. Indenture of Susan Remer to the Shakers of Watervliet

40. Shakers and the Education of Children

41. A Shaker Hymn

42. Complex Marriage

43. John Humphrey Noyes's Home Talks

44. A Rebuttal of Noyes and Perfectionism

Part VII: Religion and New York Politics

45. Abijah Beckwith's Reflections on a Political Career

46. Selections from New York's 1821 Constitution

47. An Anti-Masonic Declaration of Independence

48. Report of the Cayuga County Temperance Society

49. A Sabbatarian Convention

50. The Anti-Rent Wars

51. Selections from New York's 1846 Constitution

52. Abijah Beckwith's Consideration of Civil Rights for Women

Part VIII: Abolitionism and Ultraism in the Burned-over District

53. Rev. Thomas James on Antislavery Activism

54. New York Governor William L. Marcy Denounces Abolitionism

55. New York Methodists on Abolitionism

56. Establishing an Antislavery Newspaper

57. Resolutions of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society

58. Creating Antislavery Petitions

59. How to Be an Abolitionist

60. Gerrit Smith's Critique of the Clergy on Abolitionism

61. The Jerry Rescue

Conclusion: The Legacy of the Burned-over District

Acknowledgments

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: McBride, Spencer W. New York's Burned-over District

ISBN:

1-5017-7055-1