2025/01/01 by Erin Bartram · 1 voice
Environmental Science · #American Environmental and Regional History
paper · doi:10.5406/21568030.12.13
As one of the sources in Spencer W. McBride and Jennifer Hull Dorsey's New York's Burned-Over District: A Documentary History notes, “New York has a character peculiarly her own” (219). In this new collection of documents from one of New York's most historically “peculiar” regions, however, the specific experience of central and western New York in the early republic invites readers to reconsider what they know about national religious and social movements of the period. The editors emphasize that the assessment of this region as unique in the religious history of the United States is not only a retrospective one; its residents, and onlookers from around the country, knew something different was happening in New York at the time. The richness of each source in this collection, bolstered by the editorial choices made in the selection process, will provide even seasoned researchers with new perspectives on the tension between enthusiasm and control that characterized so much of this area's development.For Dorsey and McBride, the Burned-Over District was categorized by three intertwined impulses: revival, reform, and alternative religious movements. Given the region's reputation for revival, the editors clearly introduce the major competing scholarly interpretations of the Second Great Awakening and its intensity in this region. They also acknowledge that their choice of documents was intended to support, and therefore complicate, each of these interpretations. The sixty-one sources in the collection have been divided into eight conceptual sections drawn from these themes: settlement, missionaries, revivals, church development, kingdoms of God, intentional communities, religion and New York politics, and abolitionism and ultraism.Within these thematic sections, the editors’ placement of documents suggests several provocative pairings that could prompt effective discussion in a variety of high school, undergraduate, and graduate courses. For instance, Rev. Jacob Cram's report on the state of his mission suggests there would be value in sending additional missionaries to preach to members of the Six Nations, while the following document, a speech from Haudenosaunee representative Sagoyewatha, makes clear that Cram's own overtures were unwelcome. One selection from Theodore Weld, in which he optimistically argues that men simply need to see women preaching to understand their equality, is effectively paired with a selection from Sarah and Angelina Grimké, whose deep skepticism and meditations on patriarchy and power could provoke thoughtful conversations in many classroom settings—or even reflection in the minds of scholars who have yet to give much thought to the history of women and gender.The real value of the volume to educators, however, arises in the pairings that emerge when the sixty-one sources are taken together. This is not to say that students must read every source, but rather that educators should think about the full collection when considering how to use it. For instance, the included writings of Joseph Smith, John Humphrey Noyes, and Robert Matthews (Matthias) form a compelling set. Documents that speak to the conflict over the nature and utility of revivals, while not grouped together, illuminate the mutually constitutive relationship between belief and social relationships. One might even connect the conversion accounts of Bradford King to Presbyterianism and Nancy Alexander Tracy to Mormonism with Isabella Baumfree's “The Matthias Imposter.” Given how well the included Mormon sources speak to others in the collection, those teaching Mormon history at the undergraduate level will undoubtedly find further connections with their existing course material, particularly those that clarify through contrast.While many of the documents are excerpts, readers will be impressed by their length and by the thoughtful choice the editors made to include complete lists of contributors, including treaty signatories—the kind of material other editors often omit or summarize. The book begins with a clear description of the editorial method, which is especially welcome given the variety of documentary forms found in this volume. That variety is one of the collection's greatest strengths. In addition to the mission reports, journals, testimonials, and newspaper articles one might expect, McBride and Dorsey have included population tables, covenants, hymns, and preprinted intake forms for the indenture of children in Shaker communities. Given this focus on variety, and the limited space available in the collection, readers may be surprised by the choice to provide multiple sources from the same individuals. In fact, those sources provide some of the collection's best moments, as with the inclusion of William Miller's biblical calculations for the second coming followed by his defense after no one came.While a small but helpful map is provided at the beginning of the volume, anyone who is not deeply familiar with the area will quickly find themselves wanting something more detailed, including a map of New York's counties. This speaks to one of the most interesting teaching possibilities of the collection, however. The book's extensive individual and corporate accounts of missions, revivals, and institution building provides readers with abundant data about geography and population, as well as travel and communication times, suggesting a number of course-based collaborative mapping projects.Although the history of this area's economic development in the early nineteenth century is not given significant attention in the introductory material, the documents contain enough direct and oblique references to agriculture and canal building that educators may want to ensure students have more context, even in courses focused on the religious aspects of the Burned-Over District. The collection is valuable for thinking about broad religious and social currents in the antebellum United States, but documents like the 1838 American Bethel Society report, selected revisions to the state constitution, and a poem from the Anti-Rent movement ensure this collection reflects New York's “peculiar” character and connects religious revival and social reform to questions of land and democracy in the state. This multifaceted exploration of the Burned-Over District offers particular value to those in Mormon studies, who may discover new ways that their research interests have roots not only in the religious upheaval of this unique time and place, but also in its broader culture of questioning and reimagining material and spiritual worlds.Though there are Indigenous voices in the collection, the Burned-Over District as a colonized space and the role of missionaries as agents of a colonial project is relatively underexplored in the introductory framings. Given the abundance of scholarly work on this dynamic around the globe in the nineteenth century, readers should bring that critical lens to bear on the full collection when engaging as researchers and as educators.Dorsey and McBride are to be commended for producing a collection that prompts us to reassess and refresh the way we think about and teach the Burned-Over District.