Very helpful, but disgusting. Having been intrigued about Peter Cartwright from Abraham Lincoln biographies, I hoped this book would give more insight into Lincoln, and it did so in a surprising way, but not at all directly (the Lincoln parts must be in the omissions Cartwright referred to upfront when saying he'd tossed out his journals and his book was no doubt full of errors and omissions). I learned from this book about the religious climate of the time, and that helped me so much with nagging thoughts about Lincoln's personal spiritual journey. I also learned about ways some justified being professing Christians while harboring hostility toward abolitionism, the Underground Railroad, and so on. Cartwright called himself a "conservative," and said his spiritual conversations tended to greater emancipation and colonization of slaves. Cartwright's hate doesn't stop there, he rails against Calvinists in the most brutal ways, again helping me to understand the spiritual confusion as well as the politics of the times. The so-called Second Great Awakening (more inoculations-unto-death than revivals, imo) makes a lot more sense now, and for that alone it was a worthwhile but nauseating read. Yet another application I found helpful was comparing that political season to our present season, and the unfortunate influence of bad theology on politics -- for a moment the book made me angry about the role of Arminian religion at a critical time of US history, but then I caught myself when I realized that our present time is full of professing Christian policy influencers of Calvinist denominations. So then I thought more and realized the Calvinists of the so-called "Christian Nationalist" stripe, are usually of the Reformed groups that haven't thoroughly reformed themselves, they still adhere to the belief of supersessionism, that the Church has replaced Israel in a degree or totally and so they have more of an authoritarian we-are-the Kingdom bent, more trusting in human wisdom (they don't read the Old Testament as literally), humanism of a religious kind. Anyway, these are some of the ways such a book of hatred still managed to be very worth it for me in understanding history, past leaders, and the present. I don't recommend this book for those who aren't into theology, since it's mostly entry after entry about religious happenings; but for those into theology and history, it could be helpful, even if nauseating. ( )

: The Backwoods Preacher

Peter Cartwright was one of the first circuit-riding Methodist ministers in early Kentucky and Tennessee. The book was recommended to me because he was a contemporary of my ancestors who settled Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky, and also because I have early Methodist ministers in my family. It was fascinating to read his description of the times and the places; I had no idea that when my 3G grandparents left Virginia they were migrating to a place then nicknamed Rogue's Harbor, "because it was the home of the lawless from almost all parts of the Union-murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters." The law-abiding people who went there for the rich farm land had an uphill battle for many years, trying to bring law and order to the area.
The struggles with lawlessness made the area ripe for the revivalist movement which was spreading throughout the country. Cartwright describes camp meetings where thousands of people gathered from far and near and camped out for days and weeks at a time to hear preachers. It sounds like these were some pretty crazy events with people showing their religion by loud praising, falling on the ground with shakes (but not Shakers), loudly praying for mercy for hours.
The life of a traveling preacher was challenging as they rode horseback for miles on end through hostile environments, swimming across rivers with their horse, riding days sometimes without seeing another person, trusting that settlers along the way would put up a stranger for the night. Cartwright was often gone 4-8 weeks on his circuit. He eventually moved to Illinois and rode the circuit near Nauvoo, an "idolotrous city," and he met and debated with "uncle Jo." It was interesting to read a contemporary's description, which of course was quite negative.
At times the book is slow, being written in mid-19th century style and sometimes focusing too much on church politics, but all in all it was a fascinating look at a time period that mirrored those of my early Kentucky-settling ancestors. ( )