Autobiography of Peter Cartwright: The Backwoods Preacher

by Peter Cartwright

Overview

Peter Cartwright, affectionately termed the 'backwoods preacher', tells his life story; a tale of adventure, hardship and inspiration for all who follow God's path.

Born at a time when the USA was a newborn nation, Peter Cartwright experienced a formal conversion to the Christian creed at the age of fifteen while attending camp. Witnessing the power the Christian ministry in his fledgling country had to commit good, Cartwright became a devout student of the holy scripture and aspired to work as a preacher for a lifetime.

Opportunity presented itself in the form of the Methodist Episcopal Church. An enthusiastic speaker, Cartwright preached for four years prior to being officially ordained; he tells of learning to exhort crowd members and move them to the service of God. From a young age, Cartwright placed his own moral convictions above the church's association with politics; what was wrong was wrong, even things enshrined in the law and government of a society.

Peter Cartwright was an early opponent of slavery, and campaigned for the abolitionist cause. The major chapters in this side of his life are alluded to; for the author, the freedom of all men was a crucial part of Christian fellowship. He describes a reluctance among fellow churchmen to oppose the subject, and how this only fired his enthusiasm further in seeking legislative redress - an outlawing of the practice nationwide.

For most of his career, Cartwright roamed the Midwest, from the frontier through to Kentucky and Illinois. A popular personality on the preaching circuit, he was nicknamed 'God's Plowman' - as his travels took him across hundreds of miles of fertile country. The author would later seek and win political office, with this autobiography sealing his legacy, recapping as it does the upheaval and changes in a great country and its expression of faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789874419
Publisher:	Pantianos Classics
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

Read an Excerpt

preacher sent to them. And perhaps this victory may be considered among the first-fruits of Methodism in that part of this new country. This was in 1808. At this meeting I collected, as well as I could, the names and places where it was supposed they wanted Methodist preaching. I made out and returned a kind of plan for a Circuit, carried it to Conference, and they were temporarily supplied by the presiding elder in 1809 and 1810. In 1811 the Circuit was called St. Vincennes, and was attached to the Cumberland District, and Thomas Stillwell appointed the preacher in charge. CHAPTER VI. EXHORTING AND FIRST PREACHING. I Will now resume my personal narrative. I went on enjoying great comfort and peace. I attended several camp-meetings among the Methodists and Presbyterians. At all of them there were many souls converted to God. At one of these camp-meetings something like the following incident occurred: There was a great stir of religion in the crowded congregation that attended. Many opposed the work, and among the rest a Mr. D , who called himself a Jew. He was tolerably smart, and seemed to take great delight in opposing the Christian religion. lu the intermissions, the young men and boys of us, who professed religion, would retire to the woods and hold prayer-meetings; and if we knew of any boya that were seeking religion, we would take them along and pray for them. Many of them obtained religion in these praying circles, and raised loud shouts of praise to God, in which those of us that were religious would join. One evening a large company of us retired for prayer. In the midst of our little meeting this Jew appeared, and he desired to know what we were about. Well, I toldhim. He said it was all wrong, that it was idolatry to pray to Jesus Christ, and t...