“Pen and Ink Communion”: Evangelical Reading and Writing in Antebellum America

Abstract

In their shared, mutually supportive reading and writing practices, antebellum evangelicals like the Smith family prepared themselves for national conversion and global millennium. Institutionalizing the spiritual and intellectual rewards of their “pen and ink communion” in churches, schools, moral reform societies, and family relationships, they helped advance a powerful evangelicalism that continues to shape our world today.