The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America

“The Second Great Awakening of the 1830s marked the peak years of the market revolution that took the country from the fringe of the world economy to the brink of commercial greatness.” 

The Second Great Awakening was, in many ways, influenced by the advent of market capitalism, which transformed America from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation. At this time in American history, the right to vote was reserved exclusively for property-holding white males, many of whom controlled and benefited from the growing market economy.

“[Matthews was a] poor [man]...rooted socially and emotionally in the yeoman republic of the eighteenth century [and] had been diminished by the revolution.” 

Matthews’s failure to find success in the emergent market system, along with his rejection of the new Christian revivalist sects ushered in by the Second Great Awakening, demonstrated his inability to adapt to his new surroundings. He remained a prisoner of his strict Calvinist upbringing, one that believed wholly in Old Testament patriarchy and predestination.

“At the center of the family’s map stood the Pierson’s’ spiritual bulwark, Morristown’s first Presbyterian church…[m]uch like most families of the period the Piersons were connected through their spirituality.” 

The center of town life in Morristown was the First Presbyterian Church. The Pierson family were founding members, which gave them status in the community. Pierson grew up with an awareness of his social ranking, which was reinforced by seating arrangements at the church. Wealthy families sat in the front pews, while the poor sat in the gallery.