Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era / Edition 1

by Paul Harvey

Overview

In a sweeping analysis of religion in the post-Civil War and twentieth-century South, Freedom's Coming puts race and culture at the center, describing southern Protestant cultures as both priestly and prophetic: as southern formal theology sanctified dominant political and social hierarchies, evangelical belief and practice subtly undermined them. The seeds of subversion, Paul Harvey argues, were embedded in the passionate individualism, exuberant expressive forms, and profound faith of believers in the region.

Harvey explains how black and white religious folk within and outside of mainstream religious groups formed a southern "evangelical counterculture" of Christian interracialism that challenged the theologically grounded racism pervasive among white southerners and ultimately helped to end Jim Crow in the South. Moving from the folk theology of segregation to the women who organized the Montgomery bus boycott, from the hymn-inspired freedom songs of the 1960s to the influence of black Pentecostal preachers on Elvis Presley, Harvey deploys cultural history in fresh and innovative ways and fills a decades-old need for a comprehensive history of Protestant religion and its relationship to the central question of race in the South for the postbellum and twentieth-century period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807858141
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/26/2007
Edition description:	1
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Paul Harvey is professor of history at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He is author of Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925 and coeditor of Themes in Religion and American Culture.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Adds much to a rich literature on the South and religion.—Florida Historical Quarterly



A sweeping examination of Christianity in the South between the end of the Civil War and the late twentieth century.—Journal of Mississippi History



[A] rich, complex book. . . . An important contribution to the history of religion and race in the South.—Anglican and Episcopal History



Because Freedom's Coming so perfectly digests the best new works on the South, this is the place to play catch-up on southern religious scholarship. . . . The religious cultures of the South are too important and too unwieldy to be exhausted in one book, but if you're looking for a place to start, there isn't a better place than Freedom's Coming.—Southern Cultures



A comprehensive investigation of religion in the post-Civil War and twentieth-century South. . . . An enlighening introduction to the intricate mix of politics, race, and religion that helped to shape history in the American South—The Courier



Harvey has done it again. . . . An outstanding contribution to studies in American cultural and religious history.—Baptist History-Heritage



Freedom's Coming is an intriguing study and a welcomed addition to the literature on religion and social transformation.—Journal of American History



A wonderful book, useful for classes, well written and thoroughly researched. In properly bringing many unstudied and poorly studied characters to the forefront of southern history, it thinks wisely and widely about the places of religion in southern life.—Ted Ownby, Church History



[Harvey] offers a lucid analysis of the dashed hopes of both African Americans and northern missionaries—and a few indigenous white progressives. . . . Freedom's Coming is well written and accessible to anyone interested in the questions of race and religion in the South. Historians will find the work well researched.—The Alabama Review



[A] fascinating study of religion in the post-Civil War South. . . . [Harvey's] insightful, humane book deserves a wide readership.—American Historical Review

Editorial Reviews

"[A] rich, complex book. . . . An important contribution to the history of religion and race in the South."
-- "Anglican and Episcopal History"

"[H]is interpretive theme of illusive freedom proves an effective way to make religion central to the overall southern story."
-- Charles Reagan Wilson, University of Mississippi, general editor of "The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture"

"[T]his book is a testimony to years of serious reflection on a mountain of material."
-- "The North Carolina Historical Review"

"[W]ell written and accessible to anyone interested in the questions of race and religion in the South."
-- "The Alabama Review"

"A wonderful book, useful for classes, well written and thoroughly researched."
-- "Church History"

"Harvey has done it again. . . . An outstanding contribution to studies in American cultural and religious history."
-- "Baptist History-Heritage"

"Harvey has produced a beautifully written, detailed, and textured work that history readers will savor."
-- "Choice"

[H]is interpretive theme of illusive freedom proves an effective way to make religion central to the overall southern story.

Charles Reagan Wilson, University of Mississippi, general editor of "The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture"

[T]his book is a testimony to years of serious reflection on a mountain of material.

"The North Carolina Historical Review"

[W]ell written and accessible to anyone interested in the questions of race and religion in the South.

"The Alabama Review"

A wonderful book, useful for classes, well written and thoroughly researched.

"Church History"

Harvey has produced a beautifully written, detailed, and textured work that history readers will savor.

"Choice"

ÝH¨is interpretive theme of illusive freedom proves an effective way to make religion central to the overall southern story.

Charles Reagan Wilson, University of Mississippi, general editor of "The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture"

ÝT¨his book is a testimony to years of serious reflection on a mountain of material.

"The North Carolina Historical Review"

ÝW¨ell written and accessible to anyone interested in the questions of race and religion in the South.

"The Alabama Review"

From the Publisher

At a time when politicians and policymakers are paying increased attention to religion, Harvey's survey of both white and black Christianity through post-Civil War history is an excellent introduction to the complicated mix of politics and religion that took shape in the Jim Crow years. Although conservative white Christian leaders were generally either silent or segregationist, Harvey argues that popular, high-power religion played a significant role in the rapid disintegration of racial hierarchies. Segregation was often less rigid in the steamy revival tents of the camp meeting; Pentecostal preaching in particular easily crossed back and forth across the racial divide. "Niggers and crackers be shouting everywhere together," noted one observer of a "holy roller" meeting. Elvis Presley was one of the "crackers" who attended these interracial events in the still-segregated South. The sense of common humanity and culture that young people like Presley felt as a result of these experiences was, Harvey claims, part of the reason why the walls of Jim Crow, seemingly so solid and imposing, would fall so completely, so quickly, and with relatively little bloodshed when Martin Luther King, Jr., and his followers blew Joshua's horn in the days of jubilee.

Foreign Affairs