more widely across America, riding horseback, than probably any other individual of his day and that by the end of Asbury’s era “Methodism had become the largest and most dynamic religious movement in America.”
In those early years, however, only one circuit rider chose to minister in the newly formed Mississippi Territory, coming to the Tombigbee/Tennesaw River area in 1808. Finally an assistant came, and the two of them witnessed for several years in places like St. Stephens and McIntosh Bluff. St. Stephens’s wooden Methodist church, organized in 1857, still remains in what was from 1817-1819 the first capital of Alabama Territory. A log church, built by Methodists in 1860, survives in McIntosh. Both of these early settlements are located in southwestern Alabama. In 1819, the year Alabama became a state, the first full-fledged Methodist minister preached his first sermon in Montgomery.
In 1820, Florida became a state, ceded to the United States by Spain the previous year. Before this, Protestant clergy had been forbidden to serve in Roman Catholic Florida. In 1821, well-remembered Alexander Talley began his circuit riding work encompassing Pensacola, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Blakely, Georgia. Early Methodist settlers soon came to the Vernon, Florida, area and began a Methodist mission there.
In addition to circuit riders, another evangelistic tool aiding the spread of Methodism—as well as the Baptist denomination—also developed in the early part of the nineteenth century. This practice was particularly effective in the South. First appearing in the 1830s, “camp meetings” were usually held under brush arbors or simple wooden shelters when permanent shelter was unavailable. Models of unrestrained enthusiasm, these services were characterized by all sorts of dramatic, emotional outbursts. Itinerant preachers would sometimes preach for weeks, inspiring their eager listeners to great heights of emotion. One awed observer told how a large portion of the gathered believers were “prostrated on the ground and in some instances they appeared to have lost the use of their limbs. No distinct articulation could be heard; screams, cries, groans, shouts, notes of grief and notes of joy, all heard at the same time, made such confusion a sort of indescribable concert.”
The large number of surviving wooden Methodist churches reflects the phenomenal growth of Methodism. The South, it was said, proved particularly receptive to the spread of this denomination. By 1850, half of all Americans professed to be Methodists, although a split had occurred in 1845 over slavery—which led Southern Methodists to call their denomination Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This percentage dipped slightly as Baptists expanded, but as late as 1890 Methodists accounted for about 43 percent of Christians in Alabama, 50 percent in Florida, and 38 percent in Mississippi. Today, after consolidation of several branches of the church in 1968, the official name of the denomination is the United Methodist Church.
Baptists. Other denominations came south. The oldest Baptist church in the South is the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina. It was first organized in Kittery, Maine, in 1682 under sponsorship of the First Baptist Church of Boston. After harassment by Massachusetts, which then controlled Maine, and by Congregationalists, who dominated Massachusetts, Kittery’s Baptist pastor and sixteen members migrated to Charleston and began Baptist work there.
In 1755, a Baptist church organized at Sandy Creek, North Carolina, led by a minister from Massachusetts who wanted to reach out to the unchurched backcountry farmers. It became a very mission-minded denomination, going to all the Southern colonies plus the Western frontier. In general, these frontier Baptists were less sophisticated, poorer educated, and of lower socio-economic status than their coreligionists in the coastal towns. The denomination placed little emphasis on an educated ministry. In fact, any Baptist who felt “the call” to preach could do so, educated or not. Furthermore, any group of like-minded Baptists could form a church; approval from a governing body was not needed. Therefore, Baptist work as a whole was somewhat hampered, as the variety of Baptist beliefs brought about divisions into over eighteen distinct Baptist church groups in the National Era (1789 and 1836). Nevertheless, by 1890, Baptists outnumbered all other denominations in Alabama (46 percent) and Mississippi (52 percent), while trailing only Methodists in Florida (29 percent). Today, Baptists of one sort or another are second only to Roman Catholics in the number of adherents in the United States.
Presbyterians. Mostly Scottish and Scotch-Irish, Presbyterians were early in America. Presbyterians, however, did not spread throughout the country as did the Methodists and Baptists, particularly in the frontier areas. Presbyterian churches could only be formed on the approval of the presbytery and with certain exact ecclesiastical conditions. Presbyterian church doctrine required an educated clergy with at least six years of study. Such training and clergy were simply unavailable in most of early America. Consequently, thousands of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in frontier areas of America were left without church or minister. Many became Baptists. While Presbyterians were spending years getting ready to preach, Baptists were already preaching.
Episcopalians. The Church of England in America, forerunner of the Episcopal Church, traces its beginnings to the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607; the first church in Virginia was established two years later. In 1649, the Church of England was granted a charter to form a missionary organization, and its work began to spread throughout the English colonies. After the American Revolution, having lost their connection with the Church of England and their privileged status in the royal colonies, American Anglicans were left with little organization and not one American bishop. A convention was called in Maryland in 1780 for organizational purposes, and here the name Protestant Episcopal Church was first used. The General Convention of 1789 united the various state churches into one national church and also adopted a constitution and a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer.
An Episcopal presence was first introduced in Mississippi Territory in 1790 when Episcopal missionary Adam Cloud came to the Natchez area. The Reverend Cloud was forced to leave after a few years, and Episcopal services were not resumed until 1798 when a second clergyman came and began services in the Natchez courthouse. Trinity Episcopal Church of Natchez was founded in 1822 and is today the oldest Episcopal church building in Mississippi.
Episcopal church work in Alabama was first organized as a parish in Mobile (1825) followed by another parish in Tuscaloosa the following year. In 1830, a Connecticut Episcopal bishop was sent to Mobile to organize the Southern states into dioceses. By 1832, the Episcopal General Convention recognized parishes in Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Selma, Montgomery, and Florence, with the Mobile parish considered the strongest. Today there are two Episcopal dioceses in Alabama.
The first full-fledged Episcopal Church in Florida was founded in Tallahassee in 1838 when members of mission churches throughout the area met to form the Diocese of Florida. Today there are five Episcopal dioceses in Florida. Interestingly, a number of Florida’s early Episcopal churches were built, mostly on the East Coast, to accommodate the influx of Northern winter visitors who wanted to worship in the style and manner to which they were accustomed.
Roman Catholics. A Spanish Catholic imprint was established in what is now the Southern United States when the first permanent Catholic parish was planted in St. Augustine in 1565. Soon Spanish explorers, often accompanied by Catholic missionaries, spread along the Gulf Coast establishing settlements and missions, venturing into the vast Mississippi Valley as well.
When Mobile was founded in 1706 and New Orleans in 1718, French explorers and settlers also established a French Catholic presence. In 1727, New Orleans was selected as the site of the first Catholic school and first organized charity work in the Deep South, a school for girls, an orphanage, and a hospital.
In these early years of Catholicism, the See of Quebec exercised spiritual direction over all the French provinces in North America, an area stretching the length of the Mississippi Valley down to Louisiana. In time, however, Catholic work dwindled away in the Southern inland territories leaving mainly a French Catholic presence along the Gulf Coast, and there only in the larger settlements. At the close of the American Revolution, only twenty-four Catholic priests were reported to be in the entire United States. By the time
