The story of religion in Americas original 13 colonies often focuses on Puritans, Quakers and other Protestants fleeing persecution in Europe, looking to build a community of like-minded believers. Protestants were indeed in the majority, but the reality was far more diverse. Colonial America attracted true believers from a wide array of backgrounds and beliefs, include Judaism, Catholicism and more.
And thats just the European migrs. Myriad groups of Indigenous Americans who already lived along the Eastern seaboard had their own beliefs, many of which forged connections between the living, the departed and the natural world, according to Yale emeritus professor Jon Butler in his book New World Faiths: Religion in Colonial America. And African people transported to the colonies as part of the transatlantic slave trade brought their own multiplicity of spiritual practices, which included polytheistic, animist and Islamic beliefs, before merging into new variants of Protestantism.
In 1630, English Puritan lawyer John Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, invoked the phrase the city on the hill to describe the new Christian religious community he and his fellow colonists should aspire to build in service to God Almighty." But the various believers drawn to, or brought to, the colonies built many proverbial cities, on many hills. Five generations later, in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence without mentioning the word Christ, and neither the word God nor Christ appears in the U.S. Constitution, written and ratified a decade later. Both documents have come to enshrine the ideals of a new nation that had a religious foundationbut developed a secular soul.
Public worship at Plymouth by the Pilgrims, print by artist Albert Bobbett, c. 1870
The Print Collector/Getty Images
North Americas English colonies were founded as distinct Protestant societies, with their own charters and, with a few exceptions, an emphasis on religious uniformity.
In Virginia, the oldest of the original 13 colonies, religion was a major topic in the first meeting of the first colonial assembly, the House of Burgesses, in 1619. The representatives passed laws requiring citizens to do Gods Service, including mandatory attendance in the Church of England (a.k.a. the Anglican church, Britains state-established Protestant denomination that had pulled away from Europes long-dominant Roman Catholicism).
After the Pilgrims arrived in New England in 1620, Puritans followed in the 1630s. Both had splintered from Anglicanism, believing in the strict Protestant teachings of John Calvin, who criticized Englands church as still tainted by Catholicism. Once in the New World, Puritans gave their version of Protestantism a new name: Congregationalism.
Anglicans and Congregationalists became the two dominant forces in American religious life for much of the 17th century, with nearly all the new colonies having one or the other as their established faiths. By the early 18th century, American colonies were a place where religion was basically the culture, says Alan Taylor, professor of history at the University of Virginia. In spite of geographic and linguistic diversity, he says, the colonies were dominated by the near uniform conviction that there will be more social peace and a better moral order if everyone goes to the same church.
WATCH: 'Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower' on HISTORY Vault.
Father Andrew White celebrating the landing of the first settlers in Maryland, the only American colony founded as a refuge for English Catholics, March 25, 1634.
Charles Phelps Cushing/ClassicStock/Getty Images
There were notable exceptions to this attitude among the colonies.
One was in Rhode Island, where a breakaway Puritan named Roger Williams, whod been expelled from Massachusetts in 1635, imagined his new colony on Narragansett Bay as a shelter for persons distressed of conscience. He promoted the idea of a society where religion should not be regulated by the state.
The other took root in 1680, when King Charles II paid off a debt by granting 45,000 square miles on the west side of the Delaware River to William Penn, son of an English admiral Penn. A follower of Quakerism, the radical and reviled Protestant sect that rejected nearly all the trappings of church ritual and hierarchy, Penn went on to found Pennsylvania, a new, tolerant colony that attracted not only Anglicans, but a variety of German Protestants, from Lutherans to Pietists, and even some Catholics.
For its part, Maryland was founded in 1634 as a refuge for English Catholics fleeing religious wars in Europe.
WATCH: The Religion Collection on HISTORY Vault.
George Whitefield, key figure in an evangelical movement known as the Great Awakening, preaching in the open air.
Culture Club/Getty Images
Then, in the mid-18th century, came the most important religious event of pre-Revolutionary America: the 'Great Awakening.' Thats when an evangelical style of preaching upended religious traditions and helped reinvigorate Americas religious culture, making it more energetic, more diverse and more independentespecially outside New England. The movements key figure, an Anglican minister named George Whitefield, made several tours through the colonies between 1739 and his death in 1770. With an actors voice and a vivid stage manner, writes Butler, he attracted huge crowds, addressing the greatest concern among all Protestant believers: eternal salvation.
Scroll to Continue
Whitefield and other inspired preachers helped establish new communities of Protestants, including Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians.
The Great Awakening led to greater participation of women in the new Baptist movement, and the first significant attempts to convert enslaved Africans.
It also enshrined the act of choice in American life. Before the Great Awakening, says Taylor, what was normal in the colonies was everyone in a community going to the same church. What was normal after the Great Awakening, he says, is the individual making choices.
Enslaved people being baptized in a Moravian congregation, as depicted in a German history of the Moravians in Pennsylvania, 1757.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
As the transatlantic slave trade dramatically grew, nearly 1 in 5 of the 1.1 million people living in the 13 colonies was Black by the mid-18th century.
Enslaved Africans brought with them a range of religious beliefs. Some practiced Christianity, which had found converts on the western African coast starting in the 16th century. Some were Muslim. Most practiced animist beliefs, worshipping spirits that infuse people, animals and inanimate objects. They kept those beliefs alive through music, dance, healing arts and other types of cultural expression.
Relatively little is known about the religious life of the enslaved during early colonial America, says James Sidbury, a professor of history at Rice University. North American slave owners didnt care about their slaves beliefs, he says, and a deeply paternalistic interest in slaves religious development didnt take hold until the 19th century.
Following the Great Awakening, Black church membership, including enslaved and the freed, increased dramatically, says Sidbury, as Baptists, Methodists and some Presbyterians sought out converts of all races.
The first handful of Black Protestant churches were Baptist, founded in the 1770s in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. But most enslaved people would have been worshiping alongside whites, or carving out spiritual spaces on their own.
Religious life on southern plantations, says Sidbury, must have been a very complicated mix of true Christian converts and a lot of curious folk and others who were holding onto more traditional ways of living. Tolerance in this world was important, he adds, because the deep oppression and violent reality of chattel slavery meant cooperation among the enslaved was a matter of survival.
Print showing the feast of Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating the deliverance of the Jews in the Persian empire, as celebrated in the Touro Synagogue, Rhode Island, 1712.
Archive Photos/Getty Images
Islam was the dominant religion in the upper reaches of sub-Saharan Africa, and there is evidence of Muslim believers among North Americas enslaved Africans in particular, in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Runaway slave ads from the region sometimes made reference to Muslim origins.
Jews became a permanent part of colonial life starting in the second half of the 17thcentury, when Sephardic Jews with origins in Spain and Portugal arrived in New Amsterdam (later renamed New York). Jews also settled in Philadelphia, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia and Newport, Rhode Island, where the Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763, survives as the oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States.
On the eve of the American Revolution, no single Protestant denomination could claim more than one-fifth of the colonies religious adherents, according to Butler. The Church of Englandonce dominant, and gradually reconvened as Episcopalianism following the break with Englandwas down to about 15 percent.
The leading Foundersincluding George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and James Madisonwere all nominal Christians, but scholars have noted that they tended to eschew doctrinal beliefs. And the American Revolution itself is regarded as a profoundly secular event, writes Butler.
Many Founders were followers of Deism, a set of Enlightenment ideas, vaguely grounded in opposition to religious orthodoxies, that was marked by skepticism, rationalism and the close observation of nature. Some Deists, such as Thomas Paine, rejected Christianity outright.
The former colonies, now new states, typically still had established religions. (The Congregationalist Church remained the Massachusetts state religion until the 1830s.) But the founding documents of the Revolutionary period recalibrated the role of religion away from governmentstarting at the national level, with the states following.
Read more here:
The Surprising Religious Diversity of America's 13 Colonies - History
- "I think, Therefore I Am", What Does This Descartes Quote Mean? - Exploring your Mind - January 7th, 2024 [January 7th, 2024]
- Jacek Tabisz on Humanism and Rationalism in Polish Society - The Good Men Project - January 4th, 2024 [January 4th, 2024]
- Labor icon Bill Hayden to be honoured at state funeral - Yahoo News Australia - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Thom Workman explores the roots of the war on science - NB Media Co-op - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Did the Enlightenment lead to the climate crisis? | Aviva Chomsky - IAI - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Exeter University to Offer Degree in Magic - Redbrick - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- How Apple TV's 'Lessons in Chemistry' compares to the novel - The Spokesman Review - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Rupture and Reconstruction: A Koan About Zen Itself Berggruen ... - Berggruen Institute - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Adamu Fika and persona of the old-school remarkable bureaucrat - Tribune Online - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Craig Newmark Retired from Craigslist. Now He Wants to Save ... - Observer - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Is the US turning into a Christofascist state? - The Real News Network - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Designer John Heffernan reinvented Aston Martin and Bentley with ... - Classic Driver - November 2nd, 2023 [November 2nd, 2023]
- Empiricism and Rationalism: How Immanuel Kant Changed History - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- What Is Surrealism? | Artsy - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Rationalism vs. Empiricism | Concepts, Differences & Examples - Video ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Rationalist Judaism: Anti-Rationalism and the Charedi Vote - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Age of Enlightenment - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Nizari Isma'ilism - Wikipedia - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- Jewish philosophy - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Humanism - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Word of God and Work of God - Kashmir Observer - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- [Renaissance, Science and God: Paradox of Modern Western EducationVII] Individualism and Decline of the West - Greater Kashmir - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Exciting Puranic and Siddhantic Cosmology Conference | ISKCON News - ISKCON News - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- How red voracity will be used and thrown in West: The Communism of errors - MyVoice - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Words Mean Things: 'Decolonization' - The Swaddle - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- When Lancashire was rocked by a 2.9 magnitude earthquake the last time fracking came to town - Lancs Live - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- On the brink: How yesterday's fears can help us move through today's war - OnlySky - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Rationalism: What Is It and How to Apply It To Everyday Life? - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Rationalism - The Decision Lab - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Rationalism - Teachmint Explanation and Meaning| - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Martin Scorsese: rinse and repeat self-indulgence | Sean Egan - The Critic - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- The Origin Review - LFF 2022 - HeyUGuys - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- No, Critical Race Theory Isn't About Teaching That 'Slavery Is Real' - The Federalist - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- The Journey of the Holy Shroud of Turin - National Catholic Register - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Bengal's Tryst With Alternative Readings Of The Ramayana - Outlook India - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Warm and minimal: Riverview Courtyard House - Architecture AU - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Philosophy of social science - Wikipedia - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Expanding open access to scientific knowledge and discussion - EurekAlert - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Rome & the World: Italys elections and the Church Etienne Gilson 40 years after his death - Aleteia - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Liz Truss and the rise of the libertarian right - The New Statesman - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Debate: Theres Anger at AMU Dropping Maududi, Qutb. But Why is Sir Syeds Islam Not Taught? - The Wire - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- My Say: Allowing corruption is a greater danger than corruption itself - The Edge Markets MY - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- 'Date Me' Google Docs and the Hyper-Optimized Quest for Love - WIRED - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Advaita: Beyond monotheism and polytheism - Times of India - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Looming threats to Pakistans integrity - Global Village space - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Florence Pugh and Sebastin Lelio on the Battle Between Religion and Science in The Wonder - IndieWire - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- How Affirmative Action Was Derailed by Diversity - The Chronicle of Higher Education - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- What's the Issue with Classical Liberalism and Religion? - Independent Institute - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Evidently, Biden Does Not Know About the False Positive Risk ... - Substack - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- The Jewish and Intellectual Origins of this Famously Non-Jewish Jew - Jewish Journal - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Culture, progress and the future: Can the West survive its own myths? - Salon - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- William Brooks: From Western Traditions to Political Indoctrination: A Cultural History of Education - The Epoch Times - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Attack On Salman Rushdie Manifests Barbarism In The Name Of Religion: Taslima Nasrin - Outlook India - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Britain doesnt need a public holiday to remember the slave trade - The Spectator - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Manny Montes: Origins of critical theory - The Union - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Overcoming the Aryan-Dravidian divide - The Hindu - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Kid Stuff: Why Have Artists Been So Drawn to Childrens Books? - ARTnews - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- 'It destroys your soul' - the human toll of war - New Zealand Herald - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Edinburgh University is learning the hard way that there's a price to pay for going woke - The Telegraph - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Aquinas and the State - The American Conservative - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Jordan Peterson is wrong about the postmodernists - Spiked - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Had been staying in India since 2015 with a fake passport, voter ID and driving license: Bangladeshi Faisal Ahmed arrested for the murder of Hindu... - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- The Liberation of the Arabs From the Global Left - Tablet Magazine - July 13th, 2022 [July 13th, 2022]
- Roe v. Wade in the dustbin of history - The Spectator Australia - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- What is Rationalism? | Rationalism Philosophy & Examples - Video ... - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Hume's Fork Explained - Fact / Myth - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Is it time for the dream of North Sydney Bears' long-awaited return to finally become a reality? | Sam Perry - The Guardian - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- It's the economy, stupid - The Spectator Australia - June 1st, 2022 [June 1st, 2022]
- Jon Ronson: In 2008 Graham Linehan told me 'Join Twitter, the place where no one fights' - The Irish Times - June 1st, 2022 [June 1st, 2022]
- The 50 Most Important People of the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net - June 1st, 2022 [June 1st, 2022]
- New Aussie rules: Conservative values have fallen out of fashion - The Spectator - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- The week in TV: The Essex Serpent; the Baftas; Fergal Keane: Living With PTSD; Clark - The Guardian - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- These Iconic Scenes From The X-Files Ask if We Are Alone in the Universe - 25YearsLaterSite.com - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Rationalism, Pluralism, and Fear in the Speech Debate - Liberal Currents - April 20th, 2022 [April 20th, 2022]
- After School Satan Club rejected by Northern York School Board vote - PennLive - April 20th, 2022 [April 20th, 2022]
- 12 Reader Views on Where America Is Going Wrong - The Atlantic - April 20th, 2022 [April 20th, 2022]
- Bicentenary Year of Mirat-ul-Akhbar: Indias Pioneering Persian Newspaper that Embodied Resistance - NewsClick - April 20th, 2022 [April 20th, 2022]
- The illusion of evidence based medicine - The BMJ - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]
- Dubai property market is in firm control of supply and demand - Gulf News - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]
- Fanfare for the Common Good - The New Republic - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]