EBOOK Kingdom of Matthias:A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America

Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz brilliantly recapture the forgotten story of        Matthias the Prophet, imbuing their richly researched account with the dramatic        force of a novel.In the hands of Johnson and Wilentz, the strange tale of Matthias        opens a fascinating window into the turbulent movements of the religious revival        known as the Second Great Awakening--movements that swept up great numbers of        evangelical Americans and gave rise to new sects like the Mormons. Into this teeming        environment walked a down-and-out carpenter named Robert Matthews, who announced        himself as Matthias, prophet of the God of the Jews. His hypnotic personality drew        in a cast of unforgettable characters--the meekly devout businessman Elijah Pierson,        who once tried to raise his late wife from the dead; the young attractive Christian        couple, Benjamin Folger and his wife Ann (who seduced the woman-hating Prophet); and        the shrewd ex-slave Isabella Van Wagenen, regarded by some as "e;the most wicked of        the wicked."e; None was more colorful than the Prophet himself, a bearded, thundering        tyrant who gathered his followers into an absolutist household, using their money to        buy an elaborate, eccentric wardrobe, and reordering their marital relations. By the        time the tensions within the kingdom exploded into a clash with the law, Matthias        had become a national scandal.