American Society and Culture

U.S. History 1

Colonial Religion

• Puritan Colonies– New England

• Non-Denomiational Middle Colonies– But strong Quaker influence in Penn. and N.J.

• Catholic Colonies– Md., and Spanish/French regions

• Anglican Colonies– The South

Puritan Religion in Massachusetts • In every town, the community church had

"complete liberty to stand alone," – Not bound to Anglican hierarchy or ritual

• Each congregation chose its own minister and regulated its own affairs—Congregational church

• Ministers worked closely with government– Ministers had no formal political power, but exerted

great influence on church members• Only church members could hold government office

– Government protected the ministers, taxed members and non-members alike to support the church, and enforced the law requiring attendance at services

Roger Williams

• Williams a controversial young Puritan minister– a Separatist– proclaimed that the land the colonists occupied belonged to

the natives– advocated sexual equality

•  Colonial government considered Williams a dangerous man and voted to deport him– escaped before they could send him back to England

• 1635-1636, he took refuge with the Narragansetts– 1636, he bought a tract of land from them, and with a few

followers, created the town of Providence

Rhode Island• Williams advocated complete freedom of worship and

denied government any authority over religious practice.

• 1644, he obtained a charter from Parliament empowering him to establish a single government for the various settlements around Providence– Rhode Island

• Based government on the Mass. pattern, but did not restrict the vote to church members nor tax the people for church support.

• For a time, Rhode Island was the only colony in which all faiths (including Judaism) could worship without interference.

Anne Hutchinson• Emigrated to Mass. in 1634• 1635, began to hold Sunday

prayer discussions after church• argued that all persons could be

saved, not just the “chosen”—antinomianism

• She was tried by the Church and found guilty of heresy, sedition and role reversal

• Told that, “You have rather bine a Husband than a Wife, and a Preacher than a Hearer, and a Magistrate than a subject.”

Connecticut• 1635, Thomas Hooker, led his congregation out

of Mass. to establish the town of Hartford. – 1639, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established

• New Haven was established by Puritans upset with what they considered the increasing religious laxity in Massachusetts. – Fundamental Articles of New Haven (1639) established

a Bible-based government even stricter than that of Massachusetts Bay.

• New Haven remained independent until 1662, when it came under the control of the Hartford colony, renamed Connecticut

Crises in Puritan New England

• Puritan (or Congregational) churches suffered a number of crises in late-17th c.– Declining church membership

• Halfway Covenant

– Lack of doctrinal conformity• Church synods in Mass.

– Opposition to established status – Salem Witch Trials

Religion in the Middle Colonies

• No established church dominated in the Middle Colonies– Diverse population and doctrines of religious

toleration allowed many denominations• 1750, region had more congregations per

capita than any other colonial region, even New England

The Quaker Colonies• Pennsylvania was born out of the efforts of The

Society of Friends to find a home• William Penn, the son of a British admiral, and a

landlord of Irish estates, was the patron – Converted to Quakerism, Penn became an evangelist, was

sent repeatedly to prison, and became convinced of the need of a Quaker colony

• In 1681, after the death of his father, he inherited his father’s lands and also his father's claim to a large debt from the king. – Charles II paid the debt with a grant of territory

• Penn was both landlord and ruler of the colony

Religion in the Southern Colonies

• Anglicanism the established religion in all S. colonies– Had official government sanction, and public funds paid the

clergy– Those not members of the Anglican Church were labeled as

“dissenters”

• Problems for the Anglican church in the South– Shortage of trained clergy– Lack of leadership

• no Anglican bishop in N. America– Parishes that were vast and sparsely settled. – Frontier regions often lacked Anglican churches

• A breeding ground for “dissenting” sects

Catholicism in the Colonies

• French and Spanish influence– Louisiana, Florida and New Mexico– Conversion of the Indians

• Maryland and Pennsylvania had largest Catholic populations in the English colonies

Maryland • Maryland emerged from desire of English

Catholics to escape discrimination. – The colony was the dream of George Calvert

• March 1634, two ships bearing about 300 passengers established the village of St. Mary's

• Calvert soon realized that Catholics would always be a minority in the colony. – “Act Concerning Religion,” (1649) assured freedom of

worship to all Maryland Christians

Denominationalism

• Most colonies had established churches– But civil and ecclesiastical authorities had a difficult

time enforcing religious authority by 1700

• Denominationalism—the spread of competing churches—arose in the colonies in the 18th century– Baptists, Methodists, Moravians, Reformists,

Moravians, Lutherans all competed with established churches for members

The First Great Awakening

• Transatlantic religious revival, which first touched the Middle Colonies in the 1730s.

• George Whitfield—catalyst of Great Awakening– English preacher who came to America in 1738. – played on feelings of his audience—religious emotionalism– “Fire and Brimstone” sermons– tent revivals

• Whitfield’s style copied by others– Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Impact of the Great Awakening• Divisions in American Protestantism

– “Old Lights”—opponents of Great Awakening– “New Lights”—supporters of Great Awakening

• New Protestant sects created– increased need for religious toleration in America

• Institutions of higher education created– needed to develop an educated, “American” clergy

• Empowered women• Introduced revivalism into American religion• Stressed egalitarianism• Influenced political behavior

Religion and the Revolution • On the whole, the war and its revolutionary ideals

greatly weakened organized religion in the US– emphasized reason over faith, individual over communal,

temporal over spiritual

• No sect suffered more than the Anglicans– Revolutionary regimes disestablished state churches and

eliminated tax subsidies– Anglicans had also benefited from aid from England, which

ceased with the outbreak of war. – By end of the war ended, many Anglican parishes no longer

had clergymen

• Quakers were also weakened, as pacifism was unpopular during the war

Catholicism and the Revolution• War improved the position of the Catholic church • On the advice of Charles Carroll, a Catholic

Maryland statesman, most American Catholics supported the Patriot cause.

• The French alliance also did much to erode old hostilities toward Catholics

• After the war the Vatican provided the United States with its own Catholic hierarchy.

• Fr. John Carroll (of Maryland) was named head of Catholic missions in America in 1784 and, in 1789, the first American bishop

Religious Freedom in the New Republic• New states moved towards religious freedom after

the war – Stripped established churches of their privileges– No tax money for churches, ministers– No more laws requiring church attendance

• although some laws still barred Catholics and atheists

• 1786, Virginia enacted the “Statute of Religious Liberty,” which called for the complete separation of church and state, and the right to worship as one chose

• Religious toleration/freedom became U.S. law in 1791 with the passage of the 1st Amendment

Second Great Awakening • Traditional religion staged a dramatic comeback in

the form of a wave of revivalism known as the Second Great Awakening.

• Basic ideas of the Second Great Awakening were: – Individuals must readmit God and Christ into their

daily lives– must embrace a fervent, active piety– must reject the skeptical rationalism that threatened

traditional beliefs– Rejected predestination– Social Gospel

The Mormons

Women in Early American Society

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848

• Women’s suffrage movement in U.S. dates from 1848 Women’s Rights Convention held at Seneca Falls, New York – Suffrage movement had its roots in the 19th century

reform movements for abolition, temperance, and women’s rights

• Conference called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott– 300 women and men, including Frederick Douglass,

attended the convention

The Great Awakening

• Transatlantic religious revival, which first touched the Middle Colonies in the 1730s.

• George Whitfield—catalyst of Great Awakening– English preacher who toured America in 1738.

– played on feelings of his audience—religious emotionalism

– tent revivals

• New England Awakening led by Jonathan Edwards– Stressed personal conversion experiences

– “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

The Great Awakening• Great Awakening characterized by

– religious emotionalism– “Fire and Brimstone” sermons– individual religious experiences– Revival meetings—often in tens or open fields

• removed formality, and class structure of established churches

– Acceptance of—even preference for—untrained/uneducated clergy

• In the South, the appeal of the Great Awakening was very much as a reaction against the Anglican hierarchy– appealed to the lower classes– Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians all benefited

Impact of the Great Awakening

• Divisions in American Protestantism– “Old Lights”—opponents of Great Awakening– “New Lights”—supporters of Great Awakening

• New Protestant sects created– increased need for religious toleration in America

• Institutions of higher education created– needed to develop an educated, “American” clergy

• Empowered women• Introduced revivalism into American religion• Stressed egalitarianism• Influenced political behavior

Slave Religion

• Before Great Awakening, few American slaves had been converted to Christianity – Few owners were very religious– Few slaves wanted to become Christian

• Most retained West African religious rites

– Owners feared conversion would spark rebellion

Afro-American Christianity

• Evangelical churches welcomed black members– free and slave

• African Americans influenced the new Christianity• Christianity an “Americanizing” institution for slaves• Christianity seen by masters as means to control slaves• Christianity also a means for slaves to resist• Black churches illegal in colonial South

Women and the 2nd Great Awakening

• Women converts outnumbered men 3:2– Called by the converted to convert others

• Pushed women into roles outside their home– Bible, missionary, charitable, and maternal societies;

Sunday school assns.– Ministered to the poor, the sick, orphans, women in need

• Consciousness-raising experiences for women– Gave them political savvy; political skills– Public speaking, fund raising, lobbying for change;

organizing movements

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848• Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

– 300 men and women attended conference on women’s rights

• “Declaration of Sentiments,” authored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented to the convention– Called for female equality before the law and the right to vote– Protested the exclusion of women from higher ed., profitable employment,

the pulpit, & the professions– Called for property rights and guardianship of their children– Demanded an end to the sexual double standard – Protested the psychological effects of the oppression of women on women

• Declaration received a lot of media attention– most of it negative– Exposed ideas of women’s right to larger audience

Declaration of Sentiments

• At the Seneca Falls Convention, Cady Stanton issued the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for: – Legal equality for women– Rights to property and wages– Access to education– Right to Vote