Bibliographic Details
Authors: Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1994
Pages: 240
Series: Not part of a series
Thesis Statement
Johnson and Wilentz argue that the bizarre story of Robert Matthews, who in 1832 proclaimed himself the prophet Matthias and established a small patriarchal kingdom in Sing Sing, New York, serves as a microcosm of the larger social, economic, and religious upheavals of the early American republic. Through this narrative, they demonstrate how the Second Great Awakening, the Market Revolution, and changing gender roles produced both radical individual experimentation and anxious backlash, revealing the contested nature of authority and identity in a rapidly transforming society.
Summary
The Kingdom of Matthias reconstructs the extraordinary life of Robert Matthews, a carpenter and onetime itinerant preacher who, after a series of personal and economic failures, reinvented himself as the prophet Matthias. In 1832, he gathered a small following in New York City, including wealthy merchant Elijah Pierson and the prominent Folger family, and established a communal household first in Sing Sing and later in Mount Pleasant. The community practiced a form of Christian patriarchy that rejected the emerging market economy, evangelical reform, and women’s moral authority, insisting instead on strict male headship and sexual regulation.
Johnson and Wilentz situate this episode within the broader context of the 1820s and 1830s, an era marked by rapid commercialization, religious revivalism, and social experimentation. They show how figures like Matthias drew on and distorted the democratic energies of the Second Great Awakening, and how his kingdom represented a radical rejection of the new bourgeois order. The narrative unfolds through multiple perspectives—including those of Matthias’s followers, his critics, and the press—highlighting the period’s deep anxieties over gender, class, and religious authority.
The book’s climax comes with the collapse of the kingdom amid accusations of fraud, sexual misconduct, and ultimately the suspicious death of Elijah Pierson. Matthias was tried for murder but acquitted, and the community dissolved. Johnson and Wilentz use these events to explore how the era’s utopian impulses could turn coercive, and how the struggle over Matthias’s legacy reflected larger battles over the meaning of American democracy.
By recovering this forgotten story, the authors illuminate the porous boundaries between revivalism and radicalism, and between individual charisma and social control. The kingdom of Matthias emerges not as a mere curiosity but as a telling example of how Americans in the early republic wrestled with the promises and perils of modernity.
Chapter-by-Chapter Breakdown
- Prologue: The Kingdom of Matthias: Introduces the central characters and the strange events that will unfold, setting the stage for the narrative.
- Chapter 1: The Market and the Millennium: Explores the economic and religious ferment of the 1820s, including the Market Revolution and the Second Great Awakening.
- Chapter 2: The Prophet: Details Robert Matthews’s early life, his conversion, and his transformation into the prophet Matthias.
- Chapter 3: The Kingdom: Describes the formation of the Matthias community in Sing Sing and its ideology of patriarchal authority.
- Chapter 4: The Fall: Chronicles the internal conflicts, external attacks, and legal battles that led to the kingdom’s collapse.
- Epilogue: The Legacy of Matthias: Reflects on the broader significance of the episode for understanding American culture and society.
Scholarly Reception
The Kingdom of Matthias received widespread acclaim for its vivid storytelling and insightful analysis. Reviewers praised its innovative use of microhistory to illuminate large-scale historical transformations. The book won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians in 1995.
Representative Quote 1: “The story of Matthias is a window into the anxieties and aspirations of Americans in the early republic, a time when the old order was crumbling and new possibilities—and new dangers—seemed to lurk everywhere.” — Journal of American History
Representative Quote 2: “Johnson and Wilentz have produced a tour de force of narrative history that is as entertaining as it is instructive. They show how one man’s delusions and a few followers’ desperate search for meaning can reveal the fault lines of an entire society.” — The New York Times Book Review