Peter Cartwright- Autobiography

In the very beginning of this autobiography Peter begins to explain about how much of a challenge the journey to Kentucky was. He explains that Kentucky was owned by Indians and they were very protective of their land because that's all they had. Once they reached Kentucky, Peter explains how his father's friend started up a church that everyone was thrilled to be a part of, especially his religious mother. Peter also becomes addicted to racing horses and gambling. His mother is very ashamed that her son would participate in these activities so he has to hide these things from her. Kentucky seems to be a very religious country in the 1800's. The first camp meeting was held here and thousands of people attended. Throughout the camp meeting Peter wrote that the audience was shouting and crying to express their love of Jesus Christ. In the next few pages Peter goes on to say how he was trying to find Jesus Christ within himself. He tried many different ways and prayed to Jesus all the time, but nothing ever come of him. A little while later Peter then attended another meeting and fell upon the stand to accept Jesus Christ into his life. This time he actually felt like Jesus was talking to him and saying that he did forgave him of his sins.

Peter begins to tell us about all the meetings that he participated in and the immense amount of people that were there. Thousands and thousands of people attended these meetings with hundreds of preachers there to guide them. A great deal of people were converted to God at these meetings and it seems that Kentucky was becoming a country of people who were dedicated to God. Throughout these meetings, Peter tells the reader that the Christians began to develop this "jerking" movement. I don't quite understand what he is talking about on pages nine and ten. From a guess I would say that while the Christians are praising God they become filled with the spirit and jerk? Apparently at one of these meetings the people thought that they were being taken over by the devil and that God was no longer with them. They began to doubt God and when Peter went to speak over the congregation, they believed that the devil was taking over him as well. But Peter stood strong in his faith and didn't let anyone convince him that there wasn't a God. Slavery began to sweep the country and Peter was completely against it. He felt that slavery wasn't necessary and you shouldn't combine the innocent with guilty because of race. But to his despair, the Methodists began to agree with slavery and would look down upon you if you did not own a negro that did manual labor for you.

In the mid 1800's, the country was blessed with copies of the Bible after the war had ended for their independence. When reading this story, I was reminded of stories that had happened throughout the Bible. The fact that Peter stood in front of those thousands of people to express his love for God and that nothing was going to happen to them just portrays something that would happen in the Bible.