North Carolina historical review [1933 : April]

The North Carolina Historical Review Volume X April, 1933 Number 2 THE CAMP MEETING IN ANTE-BELLUM NORTH CAROLINA By Guion Griffis Johnson In the early days of the nineteenth century the camp meeting dominated the religious life of North Carolina. During the first twelve years of the century, a tremendous religious upheaval known as the Great Revival swept the country from Maine to Georgia.1 Be¬ ginning in 1802, the opening of the Great Revival in North Carolina, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists attempted to evangelize the State by a succession of camp meetings. Until about 1805, the people gave themselves up to a round of religous encampments in season and out; thereafter they usually waited until the crops had been harvested. Camp meetings, however, were not peculiar to the Great Revival or original with any particular denomination. Thirty-five years prior to the Great Revival, hundreds had encamped in Virginia and North Carolina at the “great meetings” held by the Separate Baptists.23 Methodists were forced to encamp on the ground at their quarterly meetings if they wished to attend all the services.8 It was the Great Revival, however, which developed the idea of annual camp meetings. Encampments during the Great Revival, as at conference and quarterly meetings prior to it, arose out of the necessity of the case.4*** No rural community was sufficiently large to accommodate all who attended a four- or five-day meeting. “All who wish to make any progress in Religion, . . . are requested to come with Tents, pre- F?r a bnef nccount of the Great Revival in North Carolina вое Guion Griffis Johnson, Revival Movements in Ante-Bellum North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Review January, 1933, Vol. X, No. 1, pp. 21-43. 3 ?£^ert B' SemP,e- A History of the Rise and Progress of Baptists in Virginia (1894 ed.), pp. 23-24; David Benedict, General ПЫогу of the Baptist Denomination (New York 1848) pp. 648-649. ’’ * W. L. Grissom, A History of Methodism in North Carolina (Nashville, Tenn. 1905) pp. 328-330. ' * Benedict, General History of the Baptist Denomination, p. 687; Nathaniel Bangs, History f ;/ Methodist Episcopal Church (New York, 1839), II, 103; MS, Eli W. Carnthera, Richard Hugg King," p. 26 (in possession of the North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh); Paul Neff Garber, The Romance of American Methodism (Greensboro N. C 1931) pp. 170-177.