Sacred Ecstasy: Revivals, Reproduction, and Salvation in America

Since the seventeenth century revivals have been integral to the expression of the sacred—and often seen as a rather “low-brow” expression of the sacred—in American history.  Despite, or perhaps because of, the ubiquitous presence and religious character of these camp meetings, contemporaries often viewed them with a great deal of suspicion.  Particularly subject to scrutiny were ecstatic conversion experiences.  Stories of sexually charged physical manifestations of the spirit abound—from seventeenth century revivals known to many as the Great Awakening, to the burned over districts of the Second Great Awakening, through similar camp meetings in the late nineteenth century and the activities of Billy Sunday.  Represented in historical accounts and literature—Victoria Woodhull’s reputed conception in one such ecstatic moment, Tom Sawyer’s fear for his soul when he missed his town’s revival, “Sister Aimee” Semple McPherson’s dramatic meetings—revival transformations represent a renewed connection with God, a reinvigorated physical body, and a quintessential process of Americanization.

In this paper I evaluate portrayals of sexual experience at revivals in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and in particular the claims of increased rates of pregnancy strewn in the wake of religious enthusiasm.  I consider the paradox of a reproductive imperative in the context of concerns about population size, economic success, imperial obligations (in the eighteenth century) and Republican nationhood (in the nineteenth century).  The sacred, in these revival venues, provided one way of thinking about reproduction of American individuals.  My purpose is to evaluate how this thinking also applied to the reproduction of American character.