Reading the American Past: Printed Page 85

DOCUMENT 5–3

An Anglican Criticizes New Light Baptists and Presbyterians in the South Carolina Backcountry

After decades as a prosperous merchant and planter in South Carolina, Charles Woodmason — a pious Anglican — was ordained by the Church of England to be an itinerant minister to backcountry settlers. Woodmason traveled throughout the frontier regions of the Carolinas, preaching to colonists who had migrated south from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Woodmason's journal and sermons — one of which is excerpted below — provide a rare glimpse of backcountry life among German and Scots-Irish immigrants as well as native-born settlers who were professed Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Quakers, and many other variants of Protestant conviction. Woodmason's sermon lambastes New Light religion, revealing as much about backcountry life and his own Anglican perspectives as about the consequences of what historians have termed the Great Awakening, which accounted for the growing influence of New Light Christianity in the middle decades of the eighteenth century.

Charles Woodmason

Sermon on the Baptists and the Presbyterians, ca. 1768

But surely, if Persons have received more and better [religious] Edification by resorting to the Schism Shop [of New Light Protestant sects such as the Baptists and Presbyterians], then . . . certainly it will display it Self in their Lives and Manners. ... Because I hear so much Talk about Conversion, certainly there must be some very Great Reformation of Morals among You. ...

You doubtless will allow, That keeping Holy the Lords day, is a positive Command of God, and enjoin'd by the Laws of this Land. ... But . . . as my Station leads me to travel over most parts of this Country, and ofttimes on Sundays, as well as other Days, I do aver [assert], that there is little or no Reformation of Manners . . . save in some few Environs of a Meeting House . . . For the same riding the Woods, Shooting Cattle Hunting — driving Waggons, Hogs Horses — Travelling to and fro — Fishing — Fowling — Trapping — Taverning, Swimming and Bathing, and various Field and Domestic Matters, are carried on, and followed up as usual. ... [T]he Sabbath is not so regularly observ'd, as when You us'd . . . to resort to [the Anglican] Church: But since quitting of the [Anglican] Church, the Sabbath is but seldom oberv'd — for we see none resort to any Place of Worship, but when some Itinerant Babler, or Vagrant Ignorant Bellweather comes to a Meeting House and then the Silly Herd run in Droves to listen to what none can comprehend and this for greater Edification. If therefore staying at Home, Sleeping and Lounging privately tipling [drinking] and wantoning, be hallowing the Lords Day, I will acknowledge that in this Sense it is highly sanctified — tho' I think it would more rationally and more religiously be so, would People resort to their proper [Anglican] Churches to hear the Word of God solemnly read, and their Duty explain'd to them in a sober, sensible, and judicious Manner.

There is one Circumstance . . . [that] not only occasions the Non-observance of the Sabbath but is an Evil in it Self, and scandalous to the Country — and that is — The transacting of all Public Business on Saturdays. Thus We see Magistrates have their Sittings [courts] — Militia Officers their Musters — Merchants their Vendues [auctions] — Planters their Sales, all on Saturdays: Is there any Shooting, Dancing, Revelling, Drinking Matches carrying on? It is all begun on Saturday, and . . . all these Meetings and Transactions are executed at Taverns . . . So that at these Rendezvous there is more Company of a Saturday, than in the Church on Sunday: And these Assemblies are not only carried on under Eye of the Magistrates, but even by them — Most of them being Store or Tavern Keepers. Thus Vice and Wickedness is countenanc'd by those whose Duty it is to suppress it — but their Interest to promote it. And yet several of these Magistrates are Heads of these New [Baptist and Presbyterian] Congregations; Consequently, all this . . . tends to all Kinds of Debauchery: For of those who may quit the Tavern and return home, they are so heavy, sleepy drunk and stupid, as to be unable, utterly unfit to attend Public Worship on Sunday. Herefrom they stay at home to sleep off their Dose, and thereby confine their families likewise. ...

But let us go on, and examine if in the General Corruption of Manners these New Lights have made any reform in the Vice of Drunkenness? Truly . . . [t]here is not one Hogshead [barrel] of Liquor less consum'd since their visiting us, or any Tavern shut up — So far from it, that there has been Great Increase of Both. Go to any Common Muster or Vendue, Will you not see the same Fighting, Brawling, Gouging, Quarreling as ever? And this too among the Holy ones of our New Israel? Are Riots, Frolics, Races, Games, Cards, Dice, Dances, less frequent now than formerly? Are fewer persons to be seen in Taverns? or reeling or drunk on the Roads. ...

We will further enquire, if Lasciviousness, or Wantoness, Adultery or Fornication [are] less common than formerly, before the Arrival of these Holy Persons? Are there fewer Bastards born? Are more Girls with their Virginity about them, Married, than were heretofore? The Parish Register will prove the Contrary: There are rather more Bastards, more Mullatoes born than before. Nor out of 100 Young Women that I marry in a Year have I seen . . . Six but what are with Child. ... And as for Adulteries, the present State of most Persons around 9/10 of whom now labour under a filthy Distemper (as is well known to all) . . . shews that the Saints however outwardly precise and Reserved are not one Whit more Chaste than formerly, and possibly are more privately Vicious.

And nothing more leads to this Than what they call their Love Feasts and Kiss of Charity. To which Feasts, celebrated at Night, much Liquor is privately carried. ... All this indeed contributes to multiply subjects for the King in this frontier Country, and . . . gives great Occasion to the Enemies of Virtue, to triumph, for Religion to be scandalized and brought into Contempt . . . [and] Confusion — Anarchy and ev'ry Evil Work will be the Consequence of such Lewdness and Immorality.

But certainly these Reformers have put some Stop to the many Thefts and Depradations so openly committed of late Years? . . . Magistrates and Courts of Justice . . . are ready to declare, that since the Appearance of these New Lights, more Enormities of all Kinds have been committed — More Robberies Thefts, Murders, Plunderings, Burglaries and Villanies of ev'ry Kind, than ever before. And the Reason . . . is, That most of these Preaching fellows were most notorious Theives, Jockeys, Gamblers, and what not in the Northern Provinces, and since their Reception and Success here have drawn Crowds of their old Acquaintances after them; So that the Country never was so full as at present of Gamesters, Prostitutes, Filchers, Racers, Fidlers, and all the refuse of Mankind. ... In short, they have filled the Country with Idle and Vagrant Persons, who live by their Criminalities. For it is a Maxim with these Vermin of Religion, That a Person must first be a Sinner e're He can be a Saint. ...

For only draw a Comparison between them and Us. ... [Consider] our Solemn, Grave, and Serious Sett Forms, or their Wild Extempore Jargon, nauseaus to any Chaste or refin'd Ear. There are so many Absurdities committed by them, as wou'd shock one of our Cherokee Savages; And was a Sensible Turk or Indian to view some of their Extravagancies it would quickly determine them against Christianity. Had any such been in their Assembly . . . last Sunday when they communicated, the Honest Heathens would have imagin'd themselves rather amidst a Gang of frantic Lunatics broke out of Bedlam, rather than among a Society of religious Christians. ... Here, one Fellow mounted on a Bench with the Bread, and bawling, See the Body of Christ . . . One on his knees in a Posture of Prayer — Others singing — some howling — These Ranting — Those Crying — Others dancing, Skipping, Laughing and rejoycing. Here two or 3 Women falling on their Backs, kicking up their Heels, exposing their Nakedness to all Bystanders and others sitting Pensive, in deep Melancholy lost in Abstraction, like Statues, quite insensible. ... [They declare that] their Souls had taken flight to Heav'n, and they knew nothing of what they said or did. ...

But another vile Matter . . . Is, what they call their Experiences; It seems, that before a Person be dipp'd [baptized], He must give an Account of his Secret Calls, Conviction, Conversion, Repentance. ... To see . . . a Sett of Mongrels under Pretext of Religion, Sit, and hear for Hours together a String of Vile, cook'd up, Silly and Senseless Lyes, What they . . . are Sensible has not the least foundation in Truth or Reason. ...

Then again to see them Divide and Sub divide, Split into Parties — Rail at and excommunicate one another . . . And a Gang of them getting together and gabbling . . . on Abstruse Theological Question[s] . . . To hear Ignorant Wretches, who can not write — Who never read ten Pages in any Book, and can hardly read the Alphabett discussing such Knotty Points for the Edification of their Auditors, is . . . farcical . . . [and] excels any Exhibition of Folly that has ever yet appear'd in the World. ...

[B]eyond all This to greive the Hearts and Minds of serious Christians . . . is their Mode of Baptism, to which Lascivious Persons of both Sexes resort, as to a Public Bath. I know not whether it would not be less offensive to Modesty for them to strip wholly into Buff at once, than to be dipp'd with those very thin Linen Drawers they are equipp'd in — Which when wet, so closely adheres to the Limbs, as exposes the Nudities equally as if [not clothed] at All. ...

I saw lately practis'd at Marriage of one of their Notable She Saints around whom ([after] the [baptism] Ceremony ended) they marched in Circles singing Hymns . . . with a vast Parade of Prayer Thanks givings and Religious Foppery; Which had such marvellous Effect on the virtuous Devotee as to cause her to bring a Child in five Months after, as a Proof that their Prayers for her being fruitful was answer'd.

This Devotee was highly celebrated for her extraordinary Illuminations, Visions, and Communications. It is the same [woman] who in her Experience told a long Story of an Angel coming to visit her in the Night thro' the Roof of her Cabbin — In flames of Fire too! It was very true that she was visited in the Night, and that the Apparition did jump down upon her Bed thro' the Shingles by an opening she had made for the Purpose — and that it came to her all on Fire. Yes! But it was the Fire of Lust; And this Angel was no other than her Ghostly Teacher, to whom she communicated a Revelation that it was ordain'd He should caress Her; and He Good Man, was not disobedient to this Heav'nly Call — He afterward had a Revelation That it was the Will of God [that another] Man was to take her to Wife Which the Poor unthinking Booby did, in Conformity to the Divine Will express'd by his prophet — Little dreaming that He was to Father the Prophet's Bastard. All this (and much more) the Woman has confess'd to Me. But You see hereby that Revelations now a days, are not strictly to be depended On. ...

Some of our qualmish Neighbours whose Consciences keep them in perpetual Disquiet cannot bear the Thought (without Shuddering and Sweating) of Bowing at the Name of Jesus. But their tender Consciences will never upbraid them or fly in their faces, for bowing down upon a Strumpet, and committing fornication.

Others, will not admit of the Cross in Baptism but their Consciences have not the least Objection to the Stealing of my Horse, or killing my Cattle and Hogs, and saying a Long Grace over their Flesh when cook'd up to their Table.

Again, Others have Scruples of Conscience in respect to use of the Ring in Marriages but have not the least Scruple of running away with other Mens Wives — Of committing adultery . . . or of turning away this Wife, and taking another [or] having 2 or 3 Wives or Concubines at the same Time.

Others more Reighteous over much than these, and whose Consciences rise up in Judgment against them for receiving Holy Commandment [communion] Kneeling, feel no Scruples at not paying of their Just Debts, and cheating and overreaching whomsoever they can deceive under the Mask of Piety. ...

Some others Consciencies are very nice in respect to Hats — Buttons — Lace, and Ornaments of Dress — Their Consciences would condemn them as Great Sinners in having more than Ten Buttons on their Coat. But they feel no Remorse in drinking Ten Bottle of Wine or Ale, and getting as drunk as Beasts. ...

So Conscientious are Others that sooner than come over the Threshold of that [church] Door to hear the Word of God read or preached by a Man drest in a White Garment, That they will swim in the River, Bathe in the Creeks, Men and Women publickly together Stark naked in the Stream on Sundays, without any Qualms of Conscience for such Indecent and Immodest Practices.

From Charles Woodmason, Sermon Book III, 465–96, ca. 1768, in The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant, ed. Richard J. Hooker (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953), 95–108.

Questions for Reading and Discussion