Praying in the Pine Straw: The Camp-Meeting Experience in Alabama [Kietas viršelis]

"What was holy laughter? What about barking and treeing the Devil? What was holy jerking? Where would you find horse racing and religion staged side by side? Whiskey spirits and the Holy Spirit? Seekers after spiritual consolation and those seeking something more carnal? God-fearers and grifters? Where could such signs and disparities occur? At camp meetings throughout the southeastern United States, staples of Southern religious practice and culture from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. "Praying in the Pine Straw" is an unconventional and idiosyncratic account of the camp meeting experience in Alabama, one in which Robert C. Morgan was immersed for much of his early life. Blessings sought; scoundrels and scoffers that turned up like bad pennies; politicians scrounging for votes and this-worldly capitalists looking to make a buck; they all had roles in camp meetings as surely as did the devout, who harnessed mules to wagons and faced innumerable obstacles as they went in search of a place inthe wilderness where they might commune with the Almighty. The connection of the past to the present is both historical and personal in "Praying in the Pine Straw." The historical is charted objectively through Alabama newspaper reporting of the period on various elements of the camp meeting: what to bring; what to expect; cautionary warnings about corruption and bad faith actors; rock star preachers calling out sin selectively while indulging in sins of their own; and nature irresistibly taking its course, both human nature and Mother Nature, along with Father Time. The subjective connection concerns the author's great-great grandfather, a well-known Baptist preacher in southwest Alabama during the camp meeting era in the state. When the author entered the ministry himself as a young man, his family considered him a kind of "second coming" of his holy ancestor, a Confederate veteran born in Wilcox County in 1836 who gave up farming for preaching. The author, on the other hand, gave up preaching for the far more worldly practice of journalism, but who continued to mix with the more saintly at camp meeting sites across the state with names like Burgamot, Camp Springs, Healing Springs, and Oaktuppa. "Praying in the Pine Straw" vividly synthesizes for modern readers many features of the camp meeting experience and its role in Southern religious history that might otherwise remain obscured, but which continue to resonate in 21st-century. "Old-time religion," Morgan points out, is still deeply cherished and practiced but is "the bequest of contradictory forces and conflicting values that continue to define southern religion." Those contradictory forces are exemplified dramatically in the first-hand accounts and insights in "Praying in the Pinestraw.""-- Provided by publisher.

Step into the South’s brush arbors and piney woods where faith runs deep, stories run wild, and the old-time camp meeting was anything but quiet.

Praying in Pine Straw immerses readers in the raw, rollicking, and deeply human world of Alabama’s camp meetings—a Southern tradition where fire-and-brimstone preaching echoed through pine forests and where faith was often accompanied by contradiction. From “treeing the Devil” to “holy laughter,” these revivals blended heartfelt worship with all the complications of human nature. Mule-drawn wagons brought the faithful to rustic camps, where gospel fervor mingled with whiskey traders, local politicians, and opportunists of every kind. Preachers thundered against sin—even as they sometimes flirted with it themselves.

Robert C. Morgan offers a textured portrait of camp meetings as both spiritual experience and cultural spectacle, reviving a Southern tradition that flourished from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. With a blend of humor and keen insight, Praying in the Pine Straw unveils the enduring contradictions of “old-time religion” and its significant influence on Southern culture and faith—a legacy that is both treasured and complex.

With reverence and wit, Praying in the Pine Straw uncovers the untamed spirit of Alabama’s camp meeting tradition—where revival met revelry, and salvation mingled with scandal. Robert C. Morgan brings this world to life with vivid stories and unforgettable characters, capturing the cultural, spiritual, and historical legacy of a distinct Southern form of worship.