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Description
A vastly informative and rare early-American pioneer autobiography rescued from obscurity.
In this remarkable memoir, Daniel Parker (1781–1861) recorded both the details of everyday life and the extraordinary historical events he witnessed west of the Appalachian Mountains between 1790 and 1840. Once a humble traveling salesman for a line of newly invented clothes washing machines, he became an outspoken advocate for abolition and education. With his wife and son, he founded Clermont Academy, a racially integrated, coeducational secondary school—the first of its kind in Ohio.
However, Parker’s real vocation was as a self-ordained, itinerant preacher of his own brand of universal salvation. Raised by Presbyterian parents, he experienced a dramatic conversion to the Halcyon Church, an alternative, millenarian religious movement led by the enigmatic prophet Abel Sarjent, in 1803. After parting ways with the Halcyonists, he continued his own biblical and theological studies, arriving at the universalist conclusions that he would eventually preach throughout the Ohio River Valley.
David Torbett has transcribed Parker’s manuscript and publishes it here for the first time, together with an introduction, epilogue, bibliography, and extensive notes that enrich and contextualize this rare pioneer autobiography.
Copyright Statement
The Autobiography of Daniel Parker, Frontier Universalist © 2021 by Ohio University Press is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Language
eng
ISBN
9780821447239
Publication Date
12-15-2020
Publisher
Ohio University Press
City
Athens
Keywords
Universalism, Ohio, Kentucky, trade, history of religions, Halcyon Church, Cincinnati, temperance, Evangelism, northwest territory, American Religion, Millennial movements, 19th century, Travel narratives, Slavery, abolitionism
Disciplines
African American Studies | Appalachian Studies | Christian Denominations and Sects | History of Religion | United States History
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Parker, Daniel and Torbett, David, "The Autobiography of Daniel Parker, Frontier Universalist" (2020). Ohio University Press Open Access Books. 70.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/70
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Appalachian Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, History of Religion Commons, United States History Commons