CRACKERS, THE SOUTH AND THE BAPTISTS

I've finished reading Grady McWhiney's terrific book on how the Scots-Irish came to America before the Revolution and pretty much kept their way of life because they were mostly on the frontier.  I didn't find out how so many of them in the South turned from their native Presbyterianism and became Baptists but Patrick Griffin's book, The People with No Name, offers one explanation.

According to Griffin, itinerant Baptist preachers from New England were able to go into the wilderness areas by themselves to convert the Scots-Irish and at the same time, the Scots-Irish really wanted some religious structure in their lives because there wasn't much rule of law on the frontier.

From pages 164-65:

The "Congregations to the Southward" were instructed to appoint elders, install discipline, and adjust the lines between parishes so "in their after conduct" they could "proceed to obtain the Stated Ministry." The synod from the north "had their interest much at heart," assuring the people in Virginia that its members would "neglect no opportunities of affording them proper candidates and supplies to the utmost of our power." Before the church would minister to the men and women further south, its institutions would have to be put in place. Such a process promised to be time-consuming.

The people living further south had little patience for such an approach. Searching for stability in a world transforming before their eyes, they expected a rapid response the church to the north could not provide. Baptist missionaries, however, could. Preachers from New England hoping to win souls traveled into Virginia as settlers ventured to the frontier of the colony. And they enjoyed much success. In one sense, the New England evangelical tradition championed by Baptist itinerants gained a substantial following in Virginia because the established Anglican Church failed to comprehend the needs of poor settlers in the west of the colony.

...Baptists promised the benefits of vital religion without institutional trappings or delay. Baptists favored an independent form of church government and, therefore, did not have to answer to any formal church hierarchy. The congregation of believers, they argued, formed the bedrock of the church. Moreover, they required no formal education for ministers.