In Ministers and Masters Charity R. Carney presents a thorough
account of the way in which Methodist preachers constructed their
own concept of masculinity within -- and at times in defiance of --
the constraints of southern honor culture of the early nineteenth
century. By focusing on this unique subgroup of southern men, the
book explores often-debated concepts like southern honor and
patriarchy in a new way.
Carney analyzes Methodist preachers both involved with and
separate from mainstream southern society, and notes whether they
served as itinerants -- venturing into rural towns -- or remained
in city churches to witness to an urban population. Either way,
they looked, spoke, and acted like outsiders, refusing to drink,
swear, dance, duel, or even dress like other white southern men.
Creating a separate space in which to minister to southern men,
women, and children, oftentimes converting a dancehall floor into a
pulpit, they raised the ire of non- Methodists around them. Carney
shows how understanding these distinct and often defiant stances
provides an invaluable window into antebellum society and also the
variety of masculinity standards within that culture.
In Ministers and Masters, Carney uses ministers' stories to
elucidate notions of secular sinfulness and heroic Methodist
leadership, explores contradictory ideas of spiritual equality and
racial hierarchy, and builds a complex narrative that shows how
numerous ministers both rejected and adopted concepts of southern
mastery. Torn between convention and conviction, Methodist
preachers created one of the many "Souths" that existed in the
nineteenth century and added another dimension to the
well-documented culture of antebellum society.
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