Tent Graves of the Great Revival

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Religious Symbolism

Abstract

Tent graves represent a distinctive regional burial tradition found mostly in a handful of counties in East Tennessee. This tradition began in the 1820s, spread rapidly across the eastern highland rim of the Cumberland Plateau (an isolated region of the state at the time), and peaked in the 1880s. It continued in more remote areas into the first decades of the twentieth century. While not directly associated with the events of the Second Great Awakening, as far as can be determined at this time, the tradition most certainly was influenced by and associated with the continued religious revival traditions in this region. The study presented here, based upon records of more than 3700 tent graves in more than 400 cemeteries concentrated in a five-county area of East Tennessee, charts the rise and decline of this burial tradition, religious associations and connections among families, and the trajectory of this tradition in different areas within the region.

Author

• Ray Hutchison, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay