In Taking Up Serpents: A History of Snake Handling Kimbrough explains the history and practice of serpent-handling believers from the perspective of a respectful and scholarly participant-observer. While this is a story of Kimbrough's experiences with the Saylor family of eastern Kentucky, Kimbrough explains the origins of serpent handling as they emerged in the teachings of George Hensley of the Grasshopper community near Cleveland, Tennessee.Churches that practice snake handling have dotted the Appalachian mountains for over 100 years, but not until now has their story been so consistently...

Tracing the rise in fortunes of a Methodist minister in nineteenth-century Indiana, this book presents a vivid and revealing picture of the political, social, and religious culture of that place and era. Born in Nashville in 1800, Tarkington experienced an early life of harshness and deprivation, the common lot of pioneer farming families. Disdainful of slavery, the Tarkingtons eventually left Tennessee for Indiana, where they settled in Monroe County in 1817. Joseph underwent a religious conversion at a camp meeting in 1820 and joined the Methodists shortly thereafter. He became a...