The Civil War in Southern Appalachian MethodismDurwoodDunn. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013.

Abstract

The Civil in Southern Appalachian Methodism Durwood Dunn. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013.As highlighted by key words in title, Durwood Dunn, professor and chair of Department of history at Wesleyan College in Athens, interprets divisions within Methodist Church in America during Civil War. Primary sources in bibliography include manuscripts, books, Methodist minutes, journals, periodicals, sermons, tracts, and other publications, Methodist newspapers, and secular newspapers and periodicals. A list of secondary sources is also equally indicative of deep research in church history and Civil itself. Dunn supplements main text with appendices outlining number of traveling and local preachers; Holston Conference, 1839- 1860; and a listing of local preachers elected to Deacons or Elders Orders in Holston Conference, 1824-1860. He also provides an extensive set of informative notes. The text and notes alike delight readers interested in Appalachian region, Methodism, Civil War, and Union and antislavery issues. As a former Tennessean, having grown up in Van Buren County, this reviewer was hooked with opening illustration of Holston Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1860, by counties, including Van Buren, Grundy, Cumberland, and Bledsoe. She graduated from Bledsoe County High School in 1965.Dunn states in his Preface the actual Civil began in 1861 unveiled an internal civil war within Holston Methodism had been waged surreptitiously for previous five (xi). Dunn's research demonstrates his understanding of Methodism's structure, polity, and its broader role in early republic and takes a long view helps readers understand the critical role later of early anti-slavery within denomination (xi, xii). He offers East Tennessee's exceptionalism as cause and effect of its alienation and discrimination by state of Tennessee as well as by larger South after 1830s. Dunn says this exceptionalism functions as a remarkable index into internal civil war within section... and lingering bitterness and distrust long after Civil War (xii).East Tennessee, for most part, rejected Confederate nationalism and continued its loyalty to Union; Dunn explains indigenous antislavery during first three decades of nineteenth century and an antislavery stance assumed by early in America account for an active participation by African Americans in polity and economics of Methodism up to Civil (xiii). His research further provides evidence another group, local preachers, influenced East Tennessee's opinions against slavery, its favor of Union, and its rejection of Confederate nationalism (xiii). Dunn leaves for someone else any needed further research on what happened to local preachers after Civil but does conclude that rise of lay representation at annual and general conferences of both Methodist Episcopal Church, South and Methodist Episcopal Church occurred at expense of local brethren (xiv).Founded by John Wesley in England in 1730s, Methodism came to East Tennessee and Holston country as a relatively new religious in 1770s and 1780s, coming first to American colonies in 1760s. Methodism emphasized religious feeling or experience, primacy of Scripture, reason, tradition, and rejected predestination and limited atonement. Methodism practiced a belief in individual agency or the power of humans to determine their own spiritual fate (3). Methodism's stress on religious self-determination, individual responsibility, and opportunity may explain its appeal in America and its growth from 1,000 members in 1770 to more than 250, 000 by 1820 (4). Methodism ideally suited the democratic and leveling tastes of new democracy (4), and Methodists were ubiquitous in any frontier movement (6). …