About the Film
Indian Field Camp Ground of Dorchester County, S.C., is in an area where Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury preached in 1801 and 1803. Camp meetings were held nearby as early as 1810. The present ten-acre site for an annual camp ground dates from 1838 and its buildings from a decade later. In the center sits an open-air tabernacle for the revival services. Ninety-nine wooden “tents” circle the tabernacle. These cabins generally have an upper story for sleeping and a downstairs for food preparation and eating and porches for socializing. A tent gets handed down from generation to generation in member white families. The Indian Tent camp meetings are scheduled for the first week in October. The most recently built of the camp meeting sites in this region, its services no longer offer the “fevered preaching” of the 19th century but resemble those of contemporary United Methodist churches of which participant are members in nearby towns. Many, however, take the week off from work during the camp meeting to focus on spirituality and community.
