Religion and the American Revolution

Katherine Carté

Description

For most of the eighteenth century, British protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Katherine Carte argues, British imperial protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. That Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion in public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Religious communities struggled to reorganize within and across new national borders. Religious leaders recalibrated their relationships to government. If these shifts were more pronounced in the United States than in Britain, the loss of a shared system nonetheless mattered to both nations.

Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the violence of war, it likewise set the terms through which both nations could imagine the possibilities of a new world.

Sujets

• Religion
• Colonial America
• Sermons
• Atlantic history
• History of Protestantism
• Dominionism
• Mission (Christianity)
• Colonial history of the United States
• Fast Day
• Religious nationalism
• Great Awakening
• Presbyterianism
• Evangelicalism
• Church of England
• American Revolution
• Anglicanism
• American Revolutionary War
• Grand réveil
• George Whitefield
• John Wesley

Informations

• Publié par: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781469662657
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Religion and the American Revolution
Religion and the American Revolution
AN IMPERIAL HISTORY
Katherine Cart

Published by the OMOHUNDRO INSTITUTE OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, Williamsburg, Virginia, and the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS, Chapel Hill
Th e Omohundro Institute o f Early American History and Culture is sponsored by the College o f William and Mary. On November 15, 1996, the Institute adopted the present name in honor o f a bequest from Malvern H. Omohundro , Jr.
2021 Th e Omohundro Institute o f Early American History and Culture
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States o f America
Cover illustrations: (background) Shutterstock.com/Vadim Georgiev; (foreground) from the British satirical print Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis, amici? Th e Trustees o f the British Museum. All rights reserved.
Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cart , Katherine, author.
Title: Religion and the American Revolution : an imperial history / Katherine Cart .
Description: Williamsburg, Virginia : Omohundro Institute o f Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University o f North Carolina Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020055721 | ISBN 9781469662640 (cloth ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469662657 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH : Church and state - United States - History. | Protestantism - Political aspects - Great Britain. | Protestantism - Political aspects - United States. | Religion and politics - United States - History. | Church and state - Great Britain - History. | United States - History - Revolution, 1775-1783 - Religious aspects. | Great Britain - Colonies - America - History - 17th century.
Classification: LCC E 209 . C 3625 2021 | DDC 322/.10973 - dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020055721
Th e University o f North Carolina Press has been a member o f the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
For Marshall and Elaine
Acknowledgments
When I first began to think about the questions at the heart o f this project, more than twelve years ago, I had a toddler on my lap and another child on the way. I thought I could satisfy my curiosity about the nature o f international protestant community efficiently through research that would be mostly digital. I could not have been more wrong. Instead, as the research question ballooned, it transformed into something that has required years o f travel, archival work, and writing and rewriting. More than a decade has passed, and the little ones are now nearly grown. Th is book is dedicated to them.
I am deeply grateful to the institutions and organizations that have made this journey possible. Support from an American Council o f Learned Societies Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship enabled a year at Princeton University s Center for the Study o f Religion, where thanks are especially due to Anita Kline and Jenny Wiley Legath. Th at year was supremely generative, and I am grateful to everyone in the CSR community. Further support came from the Library Company o f Philadelphia, the Historical Society o f Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Society o f Antiquaries o f Scotland, and a Sam Taylor Fellowship. Th e institutions at which I worked, Texas A M University and Southern Methodist University, were also generous in their support, and I would like to thank the deans and provosts at these universities for valuing research in the humanities. In the project s later stages, I had the pleasure o f being the Sons o f the American Revolution Visiting Professor at King s College London for the Georgian Papers Project, an opportunity that provided both essential time and access to incredible resources. Portions o f Chapter 1 were previously published in the William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., LXXV (2018), 37-70. Th ey are reprinted here with permission.
Many o f the most enjoyable moments along the way have been in the more than forty archives across five countries that I visited to complete this study. Th ere is no way to list each archivist and librarian who shared their time and expertise, but a few deserve special thanks. Jim Green and Cornelia King at the Library Company o f Philadelphia, Helen Weller at Westminster College Library, Rebecca Jackson at the Staffordshire Record Office, and Oliver Walton at the Royal Archives were all generous with their time and energy, as was everyone at Lambeth Palace Library. Someday I will make a list o f archives by reading-room temperature, but for now I will thank the Beinecke Library for including sufficient heat to its already long list o f resources. Th anks also go to Megan Corley, Grace Vargas, and Arnaud Zimmern for their research assistance.
I have been privileged to share this work with several audiences. I very much appreciate their questions and comments, many o f which shaped the project in profound ways. Th ank you to the communities supported by Mike Zuckerman s incredible Salon, the Omohundro Institute o f Early American History and Culture s colloquium series, the WMQ - EMSI Workshop on Th e Age o f Revolutions, the Rocky Mountain Seminar in Early American History, the Cambridge American History Seminar, the Colloquium on Religion and History at Notre Dame, and the Vanderbilt History Seminar for their time and for their suggestions. Th e Center for Presidential History and the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at SMU generously sponsored a manuscript workshop for this project in 2017. Andrew O Shaughnessy and Mark Valeri offered thorough and thoughtful feedback, as did everyone else present. Mark Noll did the same at a later date, and I am deeply grateful for his feedback and suggestions as well.
Numerous conversations with friends and colleagues have also been important for finding sources, developing half-formed ideas, fixing mistakes, locating good coffee near archives, and generally sharing joy and misery. I have appreciated insights and help from Craig Atwood, Shelby Balik, Kristen Beales, Troy Bickham, Cyndy Bouton, Arthur Burns, Ted Campbell, Mark Chancey, Lindsay Chervinsky, Rick Cogley, Emily Conroy-Krutz, Ed Countryman, Heather Curtis, Camille Davis , Jessica Delgado, Grayson Dickson , Joe Dooley, Margi Evans , John Fea, Susan Ferber, Linford Fisher, Aaron Fogleman, Brian Franklin, Craig Gallagher , Jen Graber, Keith Grant, Christopher Grasso, Andy Graybill, Emma Hart, April Hatfield, Ben Irvin, Christopher Jones, Hillary Kaell, MaryKate Kenney, Andrew Klumpp, Tom Knock, Sarah Knott, Courtney Lacy, Ned Landsman, Kathryn Gin Lum, Spencer McBride, Brendan McConville, Christopher Minty, Amanda Moniz, Angel-Luke O Donnell, Ben Park, Sarah Pearsall, Seth Perry, Carla Gardina Pestana, Paul Peucker, Andrew Preston, Ashton Reynolds, Dan Richter, Brett Rushforth, Owen Stanwood, Tom Tweed, Peter Walker, Oliver Walton, Molly Warsh, Adrian Chastain Weimer, Ben Wright, and Karin Wulf. Very early in this project I had the pleasure to be included in an exceptionally wonderful cohort with the Young Scholars o f American Religion at IUPUI . More than a decade later, their friendship con tinues to be a wonderful part o f my academic life. Th anks to Ed Blum, Darren Dochuk, Spencer Fluhman, Becky Goetz, Paul Harvey, Charles Irons, Katie Lofton, Amanda Porterfield, Randall Stephens, Matt Sutton, and Tisa Wenger, and to Phillip Gof f for making the program possible.
In recent years I ve been blessed with the very best o f writing groups. Sharing work with and benefiting from the wisdom o f Elesha Coffman, Nicole Kirk , Jenny Wiley Legath, Rachel Lindsey , Jessica Parr, Tisa Wenger, and Rachel Wheeler has been productive, sustaining, and fun. Elesha, in particular, has found a way to bring fresh eyes - and sharp wit - to work she has read in more than eight years o f iterations. Rachel Wheeler s thoughtful engagement with history and its meaning has been making me a better historian since we took the German Script Course in the Moravian Archives twenty years ago. Shelby Balik read and commented on key sections, and Travis Glasson provided a thorough and helpful read o f the whole manuscript. Working with all the folks at the Omohundro Institute has been a joy. Nadine Zimmerli oversaw this project for almost all o f its gestation. Her thoughtful, informed, perceptive, and yet always kind suggestions were an essential support without which, on some dark days, I would surely have given up. Cathy Kelly, Ginny Chew, and Kathy Burdette have made its final steps a breeze, and I am grateful for their excellent editorial insights and experienced hand. Joseph Stuart provided essential assistance with the index. I d also like to thank the outside readers, whose comments and engagement improved the project immeasurably.
Researching and writing this book has overlapped with hal f my thirties and most o f my forties, years during which I was also - constantly and urgently - a mother, spouse, and professor. Essential to this journey has been the guidance and mentorship o f senior women who have mastered the combination o f academic brilliance and human decency to which we all ought to aspire. Th ank you to them, especially, for not pretending it is easy. I could not be more grateful to Cathy Matson, Amanda Porterfield , Judith Weisenfeld, and, above all, Sylvia Hoffert for their kindness, generosity, and advice. Th e community o f writers that Sylvia fostered around her table, with a plate o f cheese and a glass o f wine, is something I will treasure forever. Her guidance in the years since has been just as important.
For the many hours o f laughter, relaxation, and friendship that we ve shared while this book slowly marched on, I thank the Leybovich-Glikins, the Rosens, and the Simaneks. To Lynn Dickinson, and to the PCDWA and HPUD clans, thank you