In this Book
- The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Illinois Press
summary
Since arriving nearly 250 years ago in Franklin County, Virginia, German Baptists have maintained their faith and farms by relying on their tightly knit community for spiritual and economic support. Today, with their land and livelihoods threatened by the encroachment of neighboring communities, the construction of a new highway, and competition from corporate megafarms, the German Baptists find themselves forced to adjust.
Charles D. Thompson Jr.'s The Old German Baptist Brethren combines oral history with ethnography and archival research--as well as his own family ties to the Franklin County community--to tell the story of the Brethren's faith on the cusp of impending change. The book traces the transformation of their operations from frontier subsistence farms to cash-based enterprises, connecting this with the wider confluence of agriculture and faith in colonial America. Using extensive interviews, Thompson looks behind the scenes at how individuals interpret their own futures in farming, their hope for their faith, and how the failure of religiously motivated agriculture figures in the larger story of the American farmer.
Charles D. Thompson Jr.'s The Old German Baptist Brethren combines oral history with ethnography and archival research--as well as his own family ties to the Franklin County community--to tell the story of the Brethren's faith on the cusp of impending change. The book traces the transformation of their operations from frontier subsistence farms to cash-based enterprises, connecting this with the wider confluence of agriculture and faith in colonial America. Using extensive interviews, Thompson looks behind the scenes at how individuals interpret their own futures in farming, their hope for their faith, and how the failure of religiously motivated agriculture figures in the larger story of the American farmer.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page
- p. iii
- Copyright Page
- p. iv
- Prologue: Of Soil and Stories
- pp. ix-xii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Note on Photographs
- p. xv
- Introduction: Nonresistance and Change
- pp. xvii-xxxvi
- PART I: SAINTS IN THE WILDERNESS
- 1. The Ancient Order
- pp. 3-17
- 2. The Carolina Road
- pp. 18-38
- PART II: WILDERNESS NO MORE
- pp. 39-41
- 3. Raising Citizens
- pp. 43-71
- 4. Community-Based Agriculture
- pp. 72-100
- 5. Adversity and Perseverance
- pp. 101-142
- 6. Membership
- pp. 143-173
- Epilogue: They Go Quietly
- pp. 197-204
Additional Information
ISBN
9780252092657
Related ISBN(s)
9780252031038, 9780252073434
MARC Record
OCLC
785782173
Pages
264
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2006