A Shopkeeper's Millennium by Paul E. Johnson

Author:Paul E. Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2011-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

NEW CHRISTIANS

Charles Finney’s revival created a community of militant evangelicals that would remake society and politics in Rochester. The work of that community will fill the remainder of this book. But now it is time to keep promises made in the Introduction, to attempt a systematic explanation of Finney’s triumph at Rochester. The pages that follow isolate the individuals who joined churches while Finney was in town, then locate experiences that they shared and that explain why they and not others were ripe for conversion in 1830—31. Insofar as the revival can be traced to its social origins, I shall consider it traceable to those experiences.

Finney claimed to have converted “the great mass of the most influential people” in Rochester.24 The Observer agreed that new church members included most of the town’s “men of wealth, talents, and influence—those who move in the highest circles of society,”25 and church records reinforce those claims. Table 3 compares the occupational status of Finney’s male converts with that of men who joined churches in the years 1825—29. (Pre-revival figures are limited to the four years surrounding the tax list of 1827. Occupations of Finney converts are derived from the 1830 assessment rolls. Thus each occupation in the table is measured within two years of the time of conversion.)

TABLE 3. OCCUPATIONS OF THE NEW MALE ADMITTANTS TO ROCHESTER PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN THE LATE 1820s, AND IN THE REVIVAL OF 1830—31 (PERCENTAGES)

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