The Kingdom of Matthias
A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America
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- USD 19.99
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- USD 19.99
Descripción editorial
Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz brilliantly recapture the forgotten story of Matthias the Prophet, imbuing their richly researched account with the dramatic force of a novel.
In the hands of Johnson and Wilentz, the strange tale of Matthias opens a fascinating window into the turbulent movements of the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening--movements that swept up great numbers of evangelical Americans and gave rise to new sects like the Mormons. Into this teeming environment walked a down-and-out carpenter named Robert Matthews, who announced himself as Matthias, prophet of the God of the Jews. His hypnotic personality drew in a cast of unforgettable characters--the meekly devout businessman Elijah Pierson, who once tried to raise his late wife from the dead; the young attractive Christian couple, Benjamin Folger and his wife Ann (who seduced the woman-hating Prophet); and the shrewd ex-slave Isabella Van Wagenen, regarded by some as "the most wicked of the wicked." None was more colorful than the Prophet himself, a bearded, thundering tyrant who gathered his followers into an absolutist household, using their money to buy an elaborate, eccentric wardrobe, and reordering their marital relations. By the time the tensions within the kingdom exploded into a clash with the law, Matthias had become a national scandal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A curious 19th-century American episode is examined in this fluid, well-contextualized and dramatically detailed account. From the 1820s to the 1840s, explain historians Johnson ( A Shopkeeper's Millenium ) and Wilentz ( Chants Democratic ), the country was awash in religious revivalism, a reaction by those bypassed by the industrial revolution. In 1832 Elijah Pierson, a New York merchant and religious reformer turned self-proclaimed prophet, met Matthias, born Robert Matthews, an outcast in churches who declared his own visions. Matthias took over Pierson's pulpit, preaching an apocalypse that promised no economic oppression for the worthy who survived. Matthias, however, lived extravagantly, and stole a follower's wife. Pierson's mysterious death in 1834 led to Matthias's arrest for murder and generated much publicity in the fledgling scandal-hungry New York City penny press. Matthias, found guilty on a lesser charge, later disappeared. His story, the authors note, influenced Herman Melville, and shows parallels with other outsider religions and cults. An ex-slave who was Pierson's servant and Matthias's disciple went on to achieve lasting influence under the name Sojourner Truth. Illustrations not seen by PW.
