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Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt

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In Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt, Christine Heyrman traces the difficulties encountered by 18th century evangelicals in spreading Baptist and Methodist beliefs to the South, and discusses the remedies they employed to make their faith more acceptable within southern culture. Heyrman argues that in philosophy and modes of worship, the evangelical message was often at odds with prevailing cultural norms in the South. To win converts, sects had to modify their message, in some ways rejecting important theological underpinnings in order to gain membership. While evangelical religion is now seen as one of the bastions of conservative southern values, Heyrman asserts that this was not always the case, and that only in the 19th century did the evangelicals take on the characteristics we now associate with them. To support her argument, Heyrman relies primarily on church records, the diaries and letters of itinerant preachers, and a number of secondary studies of southern culture.

Heyrman believes that a number of factors accounted for the slow growth of evangelicalism in the 18th century South, among them an unwillingness among the lower classes to upset the gentry by adopting preachers who publicly spoke out against slavery, fear of upsetting the social hierarchy, and a cultural unwillingness to accept such a deeply personal and introspective conversion process. Many potential converts were unwilling to submit to such a demanding moralism, or feared being overcome by the despondency that struck some converts. The evangelicalsuse of young and tactless itinerant preachers in a culture that placed value upon maturity and deference also contributed to their unpopularity. Itinerancy itself was also an issue, since Methodist preachers were responsible for disciplining members who they did not personally know well. Additionally, the deference accorded to women and blacks within the church was offensive to white males, the churches were seen as destabilizing to family values because members were encouraged to put the church before their families, and the preachers themselves struck many as unmanly in a society that placed premiums on masculinity.

To combat these problems, the churches began in the 19th century to tone down their attacks on slavery and immoral gentry behavior. They also reduced the roles of women and blacks within the churches, and encouraged preachers to have families and exhibit more masculine characteristics. However, while the changes Heyrman cites may have made evangelicals appear less objectionable to potential converts, she never considers ways in which the churches became more inviting. She does not question why anyone would be attracted to evangelicalism, only why they might oppose it less. Because of this, the phenomenal growth that the sects did eventually come to enjoy is never explained; rather than showing the reasons why evangelical religion did become such an important part of southern life, her study only explains how it avoided oblivion.

How would you feel if a visiting preacher came along and told you that the way you had been "doing church" all your life was wrong and would be radically changed? Your reaction would probably be similar to that of many whose calm and quiet lives were caught up in the frenzy of the evangelical awakenings and revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this book Christine Heyrman, a Professor of History at the University of Delaware, looks with a somewhat jaundiced eye at "the beginnings of the Bible belt" in the South of the early 1800's. The legacy of the Awakenings there was a population, many of whom had made a transition from the old, established Episcopal Church into the Baptist Church. No sooner had the effects of this jolt subsided when the region was overrun with itinerant Methodist circuit riders who raged against cards, guns, dancing, and Calvinism; in short, everything which had made the South that bastion of macho chivalraic leisure which, among the upper classes, it had become. For good measure, a smattering of Scottish Presbyterianism is thrown in to complicate the mixture. As they usually do, the flames of revival had spawned a certain amount of hysteria and superstition as people sometimes fainted, raved, and saw unearthly visions when they came under conviction of sin. Church growth outstripped oversight and discipline as new, unshepherded converts often headed for the Quaker or Shaker communities or into bizarre churches of their own devising. Heyrman's main point, however, is to show how the Southern mindset and lifestyle of today were molded and shaped by the synthesis of pre-Revival Southern mores and the evangelical preaching and style of the revivalists, especially the Methodist circuit riders. These rough, bold pioneers were actually viewed as effete and effeminate by the plantation hedonocracy because of their distaste for hunting, shooting, duelling, riding to hounds, cursing, dancing, drinking, and gambling which were the pastimes of the leisure class. Eventually a synthesis emerged, in which these practices were recognized as undesirable, but were still indulged in, producing the South of the Confederate era, holding a Bible in one hand and a rifle and a bottle of Southern Comfort in the other, the image of which has persisted to the present day. Heyrman is to be commended for embarking on the exploration of a theme, if not an era, which has been little handled previously. The American reading public still awaits a treatment of this subject from an evangelical Christian perspective--a book waiting to be written.

Before I finished reading this book, someone asked me what it was about. Off the cuff, I said it was about how the South got religion. I have since discovered that I was not far off the mark.

Heyrman's concern is with the transformation that overcame the South during the 18th and 19th centuries as it encountered the onslaught of evangelical religion. It seems the South was not always that bastion of "old-time religion" as is sometimes thought. Heyrman's explanation for this is as captivating as it is convincing

I remember reading this book some years ago, though I have no idea how I even got it. I say that because this is not the kind of book that would normally appeal to me. But it was really a well researched and thoughtful treatment of the subject (as one writer states, how the south got religion), I thought. It has been a long time but I vividly remember the impression I got from the book as a Southern Evangelical Christian, that I may not necessarily be the person I thought I was. It helped me to see that I was, as we all truly are, a product of the generations that have gone before (a simple observation but still mind-blowing every time you realize how much it applies to yourself). Some parts of the text were uncomfortable for me to read but I got through without feeling overly mocked or molested and can say I enjoyed the book and have thought of it often over the years (especially as a leveraging point for self-reflection). Very readable. Very interesting. The reason I don't give 5 stars is because a couple of times I wondered whether the author had truly experienced, from the inside, what it meant to be 1)southern and 2)an evangelical Christian! History isn't just about setting dates and events, it is sometimes a fragile weaving of culture and individual perspectives that you just have to experience. Anyhow I liked it 'n I s'pect that's all I gotta say!

I was really hoping for more emphasis on the radical religions during that time period. I actually had a difficult time reading and staying focused on the material....Maybe check it out at the library before you invest in purchasing it...

Many people don't realize that before the Revolutionary War Baptists and Methodists were the new kids on the block in the South. The Evangelical side of American Protestantism was not rooted in the south as some many would believe today.

Heyrman does an excellent job of chronicling the many ups and the even more downs of how the South came to be dominated by Baptists and Methodists. She explores some of the stranger aspects like the celibacy of Methodist itinerants and how that sometimes produces near erotic expresses of love for their same-sex mentors. The second chapter explores strange cases of people being, or at least claiming to be, physically accosted by Satan himself. Heyrman has an eye for the weird and strange, somethings that Evangelicals that inherit this legacy would probably rather soon forget.

Heyrman looks at all of the dynamics of South Evangelicalism from Race and Gender to Age. The book goes in depth into how at one time slave preachers were common in white congregations but after 1800 they became few and far between. Women as well once held more positions in leadership before 1800 but they too were pushed to the sidelines.

Excellent book for anyone interested in the Religious History of what is now the Bible Belt.

Christine Leigh Heyrman's Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt is a fine piece of history, particularly timely in light of the Southern Baptist's recent proclamation regarding a wife's status. In her book, Heyrman shows that the evangelistic groups in the south at and shortly after the American Revolution allowed leadership roles to women; opposed slavery; and espoused other "liberal" ideas. She shows how the growth of what we now label "traditional values" came about, with the result of male dominance, segregation, and other attitudes we now associate with the "Bible Belt." Heyrman is a gifted writer; although this is unquestionably a work of serious scholarship, her argument is both lucid and lively, and she peppers her account with many interesting characters.

A facinating tour of religion in early America. Particularly interesting for the light it brings to various conservative religous groups and cults in todays news.

Heyrman tells an interesting tale in an engaging way while she carefully backs her statements. This book has much to offer the general reader. The author provides insight into how religious movements may be born in reaction against change and potential loss of power. At the same time, Heyrman never comes off as having an axe to grind.

the work of a first class historian. i am looking forward to more books by this excellant researcher.