The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant (Published by the ... and the University of North Carolina Press)

Revealing look at colonial backcountry Carolinas, despite the disgust of the diarist at their sub-human lives. The information about the various religions is interesting, but the data on the rebels moving toward revolution is of the greatest value in this book.

I read this book last summer, 2016 while at Musgrove Mill State Historic Site in South Carolina. The book, edited and with an introduction by Richard J. Hooker, is a verbatim reproduction of the journals of an itinerant Anglican minister who spent some years in what is called the Backcountry of South Carolina in the 1770's. As an Anglican minister Reverend Woodmason was in alien, if not hostile territory in the Backcountry. Being of more British and urbane culture he found the people of the Backcountry to be 'children of the forest' (p xxiv). That phrase and entries in his journals speak volumes about the cultural gap between himself and the pioneers; Woodmason was an Anglican missionary sent to convert the Presbyterians,Baptists and heathens of the forest. I am currently doing research and writing on the Revolutionary War in the Backcountry at Musgrove's Mill; information in this book is valuable contextual background to the project.

This is a history I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Woodmason was an Episcopal minister that travelled thousands of miles in the backcountry of the Carolinas on the eve of the revolution. A lot of his observations were of the living conditions of the poor Scots-Irish and also of the dangers that plagued this pioneer region. He tells of the unpleasant rivalries with Presbyterians that challenged his ministry in the backcountry. Also mentions other people such as the Quakers and Dutch he comes upon. Wonderful reading. We today are so spoiled by all our possessions, and social services. We have everything to be thankful and little to complain about.

Very interesting book from the period. Some parts are difficult to follow because it's literally the author's journal, but it's interesting to get into the head of someone traveling through the Carolina's at that time.He had many complaints about the conditions he found.

What an authoritative work of the time period. I live in the area of which the book was written. My family uses it as a reference and we have gifted many copies to friends interested in history.