Career
Soon after his birth his family moved to Logan County, Kentucky. At the age of 16 Peter was converted at a camp meeting and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He became a preacher in 1802 and was later ordained by Francis Asbury and William McKendree. In 1812 he was appointed a presiding elder (now District Superintendent), and he served in that office for the next thirty-five years.
In 1808, Cartwright married Frances Gaines. Together they had two sons and seven daughters, one of whom, Cynthia, died on the journey to Illinois.
Cartwright was a veteran of the War of 1812. His hatred of slavery in Kentucky and his failure to convince the slaveholders to free their slaves, led him to transfer to Illinois in 1824, where slavery was illegal. In his Autobiography he said that in Illinois he "would get entirely clear of the evil of slavery, that he could improve his financial situation and procure lands for my children as they grew up. And... I could carry the Gospel to destitute souls that had, by their removal into some new country, been deprived of the means of grace."
Read more about this topic: Peter Cartwright (revivalist)
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