ABSTRACT
The Primitive Methodists are discussed in the introduction to Volume 1, and included here are excerpts from the Primitive Methodist Magazine. The selections reflect the ongoing tight connection between the Primitive Methodists in England and those who emigrated to the United States – particularly those in the lead mining and farming regions of the upper Mississippi River Valley. The pietism and camp meetings that partly defined the Primitive Methodists were actually rooted in Scottish Presbyterianism of the sixteenth century. But the American camp meetings associated with the Second Great Awakening directly inspired the Primitive Methodists in Britain, and therefore what we see in Primitive Methodist culture – both in Britain and the United States – was actually a result of a fusion, or symbiosis, of British and American influences. The articles included here record part of the history of the English immigrants who established their own Primitive Methodist Conference in the 1840s. Interestingly, the denomination struggled with assimilation and was always considered foreign, unlike the other denominations that were planted by British immigrants in the previous century and became Americanized. The articles should be read in the context that the English were not always ‘invisible’. Indeed, the Primitive Methodists in this part of America were looked on as foreigners for a long time, and their assimilation was often difficult. 1 An article from the Evangelist, a publication for Primitive Methodists in Canada, is included for fresh observations of the movement in Wisconsin. Together, the Primitive Methodist Magazine and the Evangelist contain details of English immigrants, immigrant preachers and the attempted assimilation of the English within the churches. These excerpts are important as illustrations of the British-American religious ‘symbiosis’ that is discussed in the general introduction to these volumes. Also there are grim reports on the early years of the California Gold Rush.
