Religious strife on the Southern frontier

"Today Americans enjoy a religious harmony unknown by their forefathers who in the eight decades after the Revolution moved with the frontier into Kentucky, Tennessee, and later into the Lower Mississippi Valley. The thought of such a large number of souls living godless lives without benefit of a church had proved too much for those left behind in established communities in the East. 'Proselyte, ' cried one denomination, and the race was on. This book tells the story of that incredible and wonderful competition in which Protestant fought against Catholic, Protestant against Protestant, and the ordained against the unordained in an effort to conquer each other as they were conquering the continent."--Dust jacket flap.