VISUAL ACTIVITY Camp Meeting, Mid-Nineteenth Century Camp meetings, or revivals, were a key feature of southern evangelical Christianity. Many preachers were itinerants who spoke wherever they could draw a crowd. Here an earnest clergyman preaches his message in an open field to an audience that includes both the reverent and the not-so-reverent. Private Collection/Picture Research Consultants & Archives. READING THE IMAGE: What does the dress of the people in the audience say about their class position? CONNECTIONS: Why were camp meetings so important to southern Methodists and Baptists?