Revival’s Children: A Religious History of Virginia’s Eastern Shore

This book is a reprint of a classic work of Virginia history. It is the story of religion on the Eastern Shore of Virginia from Colonial times to the late 1970s. Here in microcosm are many of the same forces and movements that molded the religion of the entire nation: the Colonial establishment, the camp meetings and revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the bitter battle over slavery, the emergence of the black churches, the Holiness movement, pentecostalism, and the rich diversity of the 20th century. Among the well-known figures are Francis Makemie, founder of the first American presbytery, Francis Asbury, the pioneer Methodist bishop, James Cannon, Jr., the controversial temperance leader and power in Virginia politics. Revival’s Children includes a catalog of every religious congregation known to have existed on the Shore, Christian and Jewish, Protestant and Catholic, black and white, since 1624. Over 300 separate congregations are traced individually.