Our Southern Zion e-bog

An exploration of the ways a particular religious tradition and a distinct social context have interacted over a 300-year period, including the unique story of the oldest and largest African American Calvinist community in AmericaThe South Carolina low country has long been regarded-not only in popular imagination and paperback novels but also by respected scholars-as a region dominated by what earlier historians called "e;a cavalier spirit"e; and by what later historians have simply described as "e;a wholehearted devotion to amusement and the neglect of religion and intellectual pursuits."e; Such images of the low country have been powerful interpreters of the region because they have had some foundation in social and cultural realities. It is a thesis of this study, however, that there has been a strong Calvinist community in the Carolina low country since its establishment as a British colony and that this community (including in its membership both whites and after the 1740s significant numbers of African Americans) contradicts many of the images of the "e;received version"e; of the region. Rather than a devotion to amusement and a neglect of religion and intellectual interests, this community has been marked throughout most of its history by its disciplined religious life, its intellectual pursuits, and its work ethic.