So the last few weeks I’ve been absorbing Methodists. Methodist Episcopals, Methodist Protestants, MEC, South, Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, Zion, and so forth. Denominational lines are not quite as important as the editors of the Southern Christian Advocate and the Biblical Recorder might have you think. Lay Methodists were amazingly tolerant of whom they shared the gospel with.
Took a break from that and have just finished a crash course in the Soceity of Friends, people commonly called Quakers. The North Carolina branch, particularly. The Friends Historical Collection at the New Garden Boarding School is pretty sweet, and they’ve helped me understand the Quaker lingo and their other crazy ways. Good stuff ca. 1840s and 1850s, and while no cold hard facts on their association with the Crooks-McBride episode, I did get some critical insight into Friends’ attitude toward the world in which that took place. And, as opposed to Methodists, Quakers simply did not care to hang out with other denominations. (Can you believe that the last comprehensive history of Friends in North Carolina was published in 1896???--by this guy--and it's still pretty useful. Something new would be nice, though.)
I do expect to be visited by a committee of two men and two women Friends to inquire as to my clearness. Thereafter, I’ll probably have the urge to visit various places in Indiana.
Next week I’m going to begin hanging out with—shudder—Baptists. Pray for me.
My eyes have been glued to the microfilm machine for four straight days and I've read more Nineteenth Century handwriting than I read in printed books for all of comps. This dissertation is going to ruin my vision.
Weeks work is still the standard. Among his footnotes is a personal favorite - personal knowledge of the author. Who could doubt such a footnote?!?
Posted by: Chris Meekins | June 22, 2010 at 03:39 AM