Extract

Kevin D. Butler, an associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, details the unique evolution of antebellum-era Missouri African American churches and their influence on societal changes. Butler's text is part of the Religion in American History series, edited by Chris Beneke and Christopher S. Grenda, that includes Cities of Zion: The Holiness Movement and Methodist Camp Meeting Towns in America (2019), by Samuel Avery-Quinn; Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century (2021), by Mark Thomas Edwards; and Archibald Simpson's Unpeaceable Kingdom: The Ordeal of Evangelicalism in the Colonial South (2018), by Peter N. Moore.

Butler provides insight into the power struggles not only between the races but also within churches, as enslaved and free branches and independent churches grew in Missouri during this time of great unrest. Butler explains that his scope is limited due to the uneven nature of available documentation for various reasons, such as lack of records, the many church types (such as birch arbor or actual buildings, both connected to existing denominations, and independent churches), and the effects of natural disasters, war, and time.

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