The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray. This suited the frontier lifestyle well, as such areas often lacked traditional churches and offered few other types of diversion from work. The practice was a major component of the Second Great Awakening, a rapid increase in the popularity of various Protestant denominations in the United States in the early 19th century, especially Methodists and Baptists.
Read more about Camp Meeting: Camp Meetings in America, Camp Meetings in British Methodism, Music and Hymn Singing
Famous quotes containing the words camp and/or meeting:
“Some of the taverns on this road, which were particularly dirty, were plainly in a transition state from the camp to the house.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Robert D. Andrews, and Nick Grindé. Police detective, Before I Hang, describing his meeting with Dr. Garth (1940)