Frontier religion in the late eighteenth century was marked by its emotionalism. This was due in part to a love of adventure among those who ventured beyond the relative safety of New England. When people moved farther away into the open country, new churches were seldom feasible at first. If they were to be given any religion it was through the willingness of ministers to travel endlessly, or through an organization that would supply religious instruction. Both methods were tried. Baptist pastors at times left their churches for a preaching tour. Others gave most of their time to an unattached mission as evangelists. Associations of churches appointed their agents to go into the South or to the western frontier of New York and Canada. Both Massachusetts and Connecticut Congregationalists organized voluntary missionary societies near the end of the eighteenth century. In 1801 a Plan of Union was arranged between Congregationalists and Presbyterians for missionary undertakings in the new West. Volunteer societies worked best because they were composed of only those persons who were interested in and would contribute to the expenses. Missionaries sent out by such societies were paid meager salaries as contributions were small, but they worked faithfully in the midst of loneliness, fatigue, and numerous hardships. Outdoor gatherings, similar to those of Whitefield, attracted crowds of people.
Impact: The opportunity for social gatherings had a powerful appeal to people who were starving for companionship. They were stirred by the evangelistic drive of the preachers, who encouraged emotional expression. The same exhibitions of tearful remorse and exuberant joy that appeared in England under Wesley’s preaching and in the Great Awakening in America appeared on the frontier. Out of the conversions of the camp meetings, the churches gathered recruits and the morals of the region showed dramatic improvement.