Winiarski - DARKNESS FALLS ON THE LAND OF LIGHT: experiencing religious awakenings in eighteenth-century new ... england

As I bring two decades of research on the religious history of eighteenth-century New England to a close, it is my great pleasure to recognize the people and institutions that made this book possible. Darkness Falls on the Land of Light draws on more than two hundred manuscript collections from more than sixty research archives, special collections libraries, historical societies, churches, and town offices scattered across sixteen states, three countries, and two continents. I wish to thank the archivists, librarians, curators, clerks, and other administrators who assisted me during my visits and who allowed me to quote and cite their incomparable manuscripts. I am especially grateful to Peggy Bendroth and Jeff Cooper at the Congregational Library and Archives in Boston for inviting me to serve on the steering committee for the New England Hidden Histories Project (NEHH). In the coming years, this digital history initiative will revolutionize public access to many of the relations and church records employed in this study.

Funding for Darkness Falls on the Land of Light was provided through generous grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, and the University of Richmond. At the Institute, Fredrika Teute was an early champion of this project. I appreciated Fredrikas insights, patience, and guidance as I hammered this book into its present form. I hope it measures up to the ambitious work she encouraged me to write more than a decade ago. Following her retirement, Kaylan Stevenson, Nadine Zimmerli, and Paul Mapp expertly steered the manuscript through production. Along the way, Charles Cohen, Christine Heyrman, and an anonymous reviewer produced detailed readers reports that challenged me to rethink, refine, and restructure every paragraph. Mark Cook designed the maps; Rebecca Wren prepared the chart; and Robbie St. John helped with research at a crucial moment as the project drew to a close.

Interested readers might wish to consult my earlier published essays, which contain more detailed discussions of some of the issues, individuals, and stories that appear in this book: Popular Belief and Expression, in Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History (New York, 2001), III, 97106; The Education of Joseph Prince: Reading Adolescent Culture in Early Eighteenth-Century New England, in Peter Benes, ed., The Worlds of Children, 16201920, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Annual Proceedings 2002 (Boston, 2004), 4264; A Jornal of a Fue Days at York: The Great Awakening on the Northern New England Frontier, Maine History, XLII (2004), 4685; Souls Filled with Ravishing Transport: Heavenly Visions and the Radical Awakening in New England, William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., LXI (2004), 346; Jonathan Edwards, Enthusiast? Radical Revivalism and the Great Awakening in the Connecticut Valley, Church History, LXXIV (2005), 683739; Gendered Relations in Haverhill, Massachusetts, 17191742, in Peter Benes, ed., In Our Own Words: New England Diaries, 1600 to the Present, I, Diary Diversity, Coming of Age, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Annual Proceedings 2006/2007 (Boston, 2009), 5878; The Newbury Prayer Bill Hoax: Devotion and Deception in New Englands Era of Great Awakenings, Massachusetts Historical Review, XIV (2012), 5286; New Perspectives on the Northampton Communion Controversy I: David Halls Diary and Letter to Edward Billing, Jonathan Edwards Studies, III (2013), 268280; New Perspectives on the Northampton Communion Controversy II: Relations, Professions, and Experiences, 17481760, Jonathan Edwards Studies, IV (2014), 110145; New Perspectives on the Northampton Communion Controversy III: Count Vavasors Tirade , Jonathan Edwards Studies, IV (2014), 353382; and Lydia Prouts Dreadfullest Thought, New England Quarterly, LXXXVIII (2015), 356421.

Early in writing Darkness Falls on the Land of Light, I benefitted from my involvement with the Young Scholars in American Religion, an exceptional mentoring program sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Stephen Prothero and Ann Taves offered sagely professional advice, and I enjoyed the comradery of Robert Brown, Julie Byrne, Martha Finch, Kathleen Flake, Clarence Hardy, Khyati Joshi, Kristin Schwain, Danielle Sigler, Rachel Wheeler, and David Yamane. Thanks to the centers director, Philip Goff, I recently partnered with Laurie Maffly-Kipp and a dynamic new cohort of young scholars, including Kate Bowler, Heath Carter, Kathryn Gin Lum, Joshua Guthman, Brett Hendrickson, Lerone Martin, Kate Moran, Angela Tarango, Stephen Taysom, T. J. Tomlin, David Walker, and Grace Yukich. Their scholarship and good cheer have inspired me to envision exciting new directions for my research.

In addition to the YSARs, friends and colleagues read preliminary drafts, answered questions, shared their research, and offered words of encouragement. Stephanie Cobb, Scott Davis, Frank Eakin, Jane Geaney, Mimi Hanaoka, Peter Kaufman, and Miranda Shaw have made the University of Richmond a remarkably collegial place to work. I also wish to thank Fred Anderson, Shelby Balik, Ross Beales, Jr., Peter Benes, Patricia Bonomi, Catherine Brekus, Richard Bushman, Jon Butler, Phyllis Cole, John Corrigan, Nina Dayton, Linford Fisher, Richard Godbeer, Christopher Grasso, Philip Gura, Susan Juster, Thomas Kidd, Ned Landsman, Tracy Levealle, Martha McNamara, Daniel Mandell, Stephen Marini, Joel Martin, Mary Beth Norton, Amanda Porterfield, Lynn Rhoads, Brett Rushforth, Erik Seeman, David Silverman, Alan Taylor, Michael Winship, Conrad Edick Wright, and the late Al Young. Ken Minkema lent his peerless knowledge of Jonathan Edwards to this project. Douglas Ambrose, Marie Griffith, Robert Gross, Evan Haefeli, Thomas Wilson, and Karin Wulf invited me to present my research at Harvard Divinity School, Hamilton College, the Early American History and Culture Seminar at Columbia University, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, and the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas.