Religion as a Precipitating Cause of the American Revolution, Part I

John Baiamonte, Ph.D.

Grace Memorial Parishioner, Vestry Member, and Christian Education Leader

The British and modern day historians have wondered why the American colonists were willing to risk so much of their lives, fortunes and honor when their grievances appeared to be so trifling.  We were the freest people on earth, and our taxes were much lower than in Great Britain.  In most respects, we were governed by our own local legislature.

According to British statesman Edmund Burke, in his “Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies,” religion was the most powerful of four socio-cultural characteristics of the American people that made us especially jealous for liberty and resistant to British rule.  
​
Burke argued it was the American style of religion that was the main desire for a free spirit.  According to Burke, this style of religion was most common in the northern colonies.  They were Protestants who were “the most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion.”   Alex de Tocqueville added to the argument by stating that: “Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions; for it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions.”

In the decades during the founding of the colonies, churches were the principal institutions for the creation and dissemination of ideas.  The leaders for the loyalist side were almost all Anglican (Episcopalian).  Leaders supporting the revolution were Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist ministers.  Colonial newspapers were supporting the revolution, but the majority of the colonists were not subscribers.  However, the newspapers disseminated their ideas through their published pamphlets.  Most of the content in newspapers and pamphlets were reprints or reports of sermons.

While most European nations had a single established church and suppressed most forms of dissent, colonial America was one of the most religiously diverse places in the world.  Since the southern colonies were strongly supported by the Crown for economic ventures, the colonists were supporting the Crown during the coming of the American revolution. New England was generally a place of refuge for Puritans and Pilgrims and religious freedom to worship but not for Baptists, Quakers or Catholics. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island were generally established as havens for religious minorities.  

The First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) swelled the ranks of the Baptists and Methodists in the colonies.  Fiery preachers filled the pews with their reality of hell and salvation.  The importance of the Great Awakening is that it fostered radically democratic and more disruptive churches and more dissent in the colonies.  It emphasized that ordinary people could connect directly with God rather than through institutional churches.

Although the Anglican Church (Episcopalian) was formally established as the state church in every colony south of Pennsylvania, and semi-established in Metropolitan New York, it was never the dominant or the largest religious group.  It tended to be concentrated in coastal and tidewater regions and very little on the frontier.  By the time of the American Revolution, the largest denominations were Congregationalists (Puritans), Presbyterians, and Baptists.

With the exceptions of the Anglicans the Protestant colonists had an ample history to be wary of governments.  The Dutch Protestants had suffered violence at the hands of the Spanish in Holland.  Tens of thousands of French Huguenots were killed in a state-sponsored pogrom in 1572.  Hundreds of English Protestants were burned at the stake under “Bloody” Queen Mary.  In addition, the Puritans were jailed and exiled under the Stuarts.  Scottish Presbyterians were persecuted in the 1680s under James II.  These Protestants were convinced that their religion was ordained by God, and the action by the king and Parliament was in opposition to God’s will, thereby making rebellion legitimate.  

Another factor driving the coming of the American Revolution was “ecclesiology” (church organization).  With the possible exception of the Anglicans, Protestant churches in the colonies believed that their form of church organization was determined by scripture.  Anglican ecclesiology is hierarchical and top-down like Catholicism in many respects.  If there was no bishop to exercise discipline, Anglican ministers were virtually under control of the parish vestry, an elected office typically held by members of the local gentry.  For example, George Washington was a vestryman in his Anglican church near Mount Vernon.

The Puritan, or Congregational, church was governed at the local level by the congregation, similar to a New England town meeting.  A Congregational minister was usually a Puritan of “learned ministry”, meaning a graduate of Harvard or Yale.  His role was solely to preach and lead worship, but the governance of the church was in the hands of elected elders.  Each colonial congregation governed itself with no higher colonial, state or national authority.  

Presbyterians resembled Congregationalists, and the Dutch Reformed Church was virtually identical in structure to the Presbyterians The Baptists on the other hand were more individualistic, more libertarian and more anarchic.  If a Baptist did not approve of his church, he would leave and join another or create another.  Baptists were the most anti-authoritarian movement in the colonies.  Baptists were a driving force for popular democracy more than for cautious republicanism.

Next week in Part II we will cover how political theology affected the coming of the American Revolution.