The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-05-27
OLD:I|ME CAMP MEETINGS.
A Social and Religious Feature of
the Rural South.
NOTHING lIKElT IN THE NORTH
At Any Time, and Even at the South
Its Distinctive Characteristics Have
Passed Away.
NV. r. Davie in the Charleston Is. c.
Sunday News.

Among the many good things which
were 'wiped out" by The war was the old
fashioned country camp meetings IN the
South. Camp meetings there are still,
and doubtless will be for generations,
but never again such as before the war
might be found in almost every coun-
ty south of the Potomac, Ohio, and Mis-
souri,.
The modern religious function Of
which we read at Martha's Vineyard
and other points in the North, and the
dwarfed and disappointing invitation
vet indigenous to some part of Dixie,
have about the same relation to the glo-
ries of the ante bellum originals that
the modern tournament, with its cheap
and gaudy tinsel, affected gallantry
and puerile sports, have to the pomp,
pageantry and circumstance OF the me-
diaeval loust. -,
African slaves was as essential to the
success of the ideal camp meeting as
oil to salad or mint to iulep. Abun-
dance of personal service, loyal, trained
and intelligent, involuntary, II you
please, but none the less cheerful, con-
tented and efficient, was the very wine
of the past, for past it was, alblet not
named in the calendar or dedicated to
any especial saint.
At that period the South was intensely
moral, large majority OF the Wealth.
est and most intelligent and refined
people lived exclusively in the countrys
and the towns, with few exceptions,
were mere sub-rural aggrigatlons OF dis
contented exiles from their plantation
homes, drawn together by the necessity
Of educational facilities, of recruiting
wasted fortunes by the profits of trade
or the duty of filing for time the
Political offices of State or county, dis
tricf or parish.
Chatting under the restraints and
limitations of urban life, these weary
exiles looked forward with impatience
to the time when they, too, might re-
sumo or assume the pleasures, dlgn1tles
and social responsibilities of country
homes. The size Of the plantations,
less the result of choice than necessity
for the employment of numerous slaves,
segregated the country people, and
rendered the home, rather than the
neighborhood or town, the social unit;
competence, leisure, the virtues of 8
dominant and superior race, and q
standard of intelligence and education
rarely, if ever, attained elsewhere by Q
strictly moral people, rendered this
home the purest and sweetest as it was
the most charming, this world has
Howl;
Men and women, however, are gre
gsrious, long for the companlonshlp
of their kind and the isolation OF their
delight moral homes, rendered nee
essary some opportunity OF mlngllng
with their fellows. To meet at regular
and convenient intervals in the Interest
Of religion afforded laudsble prete1t,
and the camp meeting was the result.
The leading religious denominations
in the South then were the Methodist
Episcopal, South, with decided en-
phasis upon the geographical sufixl,
the Missionary Baptist and the Presby-
terians in the o-der named. The
Protestant Episcopal never obtained
footing in the country districts save,
perhaps, in Virginia and the tide water
regions of the two Carolinas:
METHODIST INSTITUTION.
Of these the Methodists, owing large.
ly to its semi-military organization and
the zeal, fervor and enterprise of its de-
voted ministry, was pre-emlnently the
pioneer church. With "rifes, axe and
saddle bags" the ubiquitous ''circuit
rider" followed close upon the piquet
guard OF civilization. In every white
settlement arose Methodist Church
buildings, and to these. at the expense
of untold labor and the risk at times of
life itself, ministered the interchangeable
disciples of John Wesley.
The emotional service, religious en-
thusiasm and numerous conversions In
cident to the popular annual religious
festivals, were peculiarly acceptable to
the Methodist ministry, and powerful
factors in the upbuilding of that sect;
hence it was that majority Of the
camp meetings were held under the
auspices Of that denomination. The
missionary Baptist followed, but at
pereeptible distance, their congrega-
tional system affording less favorable
opportunity for such work. In the older
and denser populated districts the stald
and conservative P{esbyteria4s oeca-
.sio9s!ly Yielded e. 81 stsisl INSTINCTS
speaking the Camp meeting was
Methodist religious festival, and par:
took largely Of the characteristics OF
tAt intense and emotional order.
fHE CAMP aRoUN2
usually embraced niteeh or twenty
acres laid off IN Square, and its loca
ton Vas generally determined by the
fortuitouS coniunction Of level sandy
soil, ample shade and abundance Q
pure spring water; add to this accessi
bility, and the vicinity Of humerou
yell~to-do planters, and the location
was ideal. Around three sides of tn
square were built from twenty to forty
so-called ''tents," in reality rough bu
substantial, sound cabins, of two room
each, with passage way between. o
these rooms, one was devoted to eacl
sex, while the covered passage wa,
formed the common sitting room
Around the sides and ends of each room
scaffolds, strong and wide, were built
which filed with straw and furnishe.
with pillows and the necessary bed
,Dlooa for fh