Southern Cross

Revealing a surprising paradox at the heart of America's Bible Belt, Christine Leigh Heyrman examines how the conservative religious traditions so strongly associated with the South evolved out of an evangelical Protestantism that began with very different social and political attitudes.
Although the American Revolution swept away the institutional structures of the Anglican Church in the South, the itinerant evangelical preachers who subsequently flooded the region at first encountered resistance from southern whites, who were affronted by their opposition to slaveholding and traditional ideals of masculinity, their lack of respect for generational hierarchy, their encouragement of women's public involvement in church affairs, and their allowance for spiritual intimacy with blacks. As Heyrman shows, these evangelicals achieved dominance in the region over the course of a century by deliberately changing their own traditional values and assimilating the conventional southern understandings of family relationships, masculine prerogatives, classic patriotism, and martial honor. In so doing, religious groups earlier associated with nonviolence and antislavery activity came to the defense of slavery and secession and the holy cause of upholding both by force of arms--and adopted the values we now associate with the Bible Belt.

Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt
Christine Leigh Heyrman is professor of history at the University of Delaware.
[F]or tackling the history of the evangelical mainstream in an innovative way, this book represents an important contribution.

"Koinonia"
"Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt" has narrative power, unusually combining incisiveness with humanity.

"Times Literary Supplement"
ÝF¨or tackling the history of the evangelical mainstream in an innovative way, this book represents an important contribution.

"Koinonia"
An extraordinarily rich exploration of the first hundred years of evangelical faith in the South.

Charles B. Dew, "New York Times Book Review"
This is an outstanding book, impressively saturated with primary sources, beautifully written, and spiced with pervasive wit.

"Kirkus Reviews"
""Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt" has narrative power, unusually combining incisiveness with humanity.

"Times Literary Supplement""
"[F]or tackling the history of the evangelical mainstream in an innovative way, this book represents an important contribution.

"Koinonia""
"An extraordinarily rich exploration of the first hundred years of evangelical faith in the South.

Charles B. Dew, "New York Times Book Review""
"This is an outstanding book, impressively saturated with primary sources, beautifully written, and spiced with pervasive wit.

"Kirkus Reviews""
Indispensable for the study of Southern religion.

"Religious Studies Review"