Assess the influence of Protestant religion (ideas and practices) on the origins, aims, and outcome of the American Revolution.

It is important to note that Protestantism helped the people legitimise the revolution in there own minds. The colonists still considered themselves as English subjects at this point and to rise up against their king was a radical step. The religious argument was that the colonists claimed that their commonwealth was based on a contract representing the colonists’ rights of liberty and property as freeborn Englishmen. Violation of the covenant also symbolised a breach of the laws of God. This breach resulted in the formation of the “Sons of Liberty,” bands of man who wrote or spoke in opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. The Church had come to the conclusion that there was a higher order that government, and governments were ordained by God. In which case, when government failed to carry out God’s laws effectively then the people had the right to protest: “Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British- an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. Pamphlets with religious undertones endorsed the insurgence against British government through religious means. For example Thomas Paine argued against the corruption of British government branding it not only as ineffective but also ungodly: “The Quaker Thomas Paine could tap that tradition in his plea in, Common Sense that Americans, like Old Testament prophets, reject monarchy. Their call was to provide an asylum for freedom so recently evicted from Europe by its useless kings.” Thomas Paine was not only widely read to its popularity but was also read from many pulpits increasing its accessibility to an even higher degree. The fact Thomas Paine uses religious arguments in his pamphlet shows what an affect it had on the colonists.

Many sermons were focused upon rallying the people against Britain. The Protestant church was an establishment which affected everyone; all classes in all parts of the colonies. Therefore spreading political messages through sermons in church etc meant that the revolutionary message reached and incensed more people. Robert Gross in “The Minutemen and their World,” puts much emphasis on the religious concerns of ordinary people in Concord, indicating the extent to which people would listen to their ministers. All classes were involved one way or another with the church and the fact that political sermons were oral rather than written down meant that revolutionary ideas were more accessible. Women also gathered much of their political motivation from the church: “Religion and religious organisations also served as the natural route for mobilising the political opinions and activities of women… Groups of women dressed in homespun met at the home of their local minister.”  This reiterates the notion that Protestantism was a widespread institution that made it possible for everyone to become involved in politics. It is a fair point that the Protestant religion was responsible for conveying political initiatives along with religious preaching and had a large affect on the people’s involvement with the revolution.

As well as helping people morally sanction the revolution, the Protestant faith also strengthen millennialist values in colonial America. This meant that in defeating the British, America was optimistic for the future and comfortable with the knowledge that God was on their side. This was one of the many factors which perhaps helped to furnish America with a new sense of identity: “The prospect of American national independence as a central feature in the coming of a millennial period, a process in which this nation was expected to play an exceptional role. A final exhibit we shall note during this period is the synthesis of a nationalism based upon a new moral community which displace the traditions of old-world societies.”

It is fair to say that many Protestant colonists were supportive of the revolution. Not only did they endure acts of the British Parliament that affected everyone in the forms of taxation without representation, but they also had their own personal, religious grievances against King George III and the British Parliament. One religious factor which caused contention among the colonists was the desire by New England Anglicans to bring bishops to America as only bishops could ordain, confirm and exercise discipline through ecclesiastical courts. Yet the Puritans misunderstood this as an underhand way of introducing British political control, although it was more likely merely a religious affair concerning church organisation: “Such a move required an act of parliament, so it raised anew the question of parliament’s rights over the colonies. Furthermore, it re-created the spectre of lord bishops as the right arm of the crown ready to undercut the people’s liberties. The descendents of the Puritans could not forget their fathers’ persecution at the hands of bishops such as Laud.” Many articles, pamphlets and sermons were written regarding the spiritual tyranny of bishops and the political tyranny which would result from it.

As well as the speculation on the subject of the bishops, Britain passed another act which aroused Puritan feelings of distrust. The Quebec Act of 1774 incited suspicions concerning Roman Catholicism; Quebec’s territory was expanded westwards to the Mississippi River and southwards into territories claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia. Britain promised to support Roman Catholicism in this area and implement French civil law rather than British. Such events had a profound affect on both religious and political issue of the preliminary build up to the revolution. John F. Wilson although sceptical of the influence that religion had on the revolution concedes that subtle changes in the religious culture of America during this time were vital to the history of the nation: “…these episodes influenced the political aspects of the cultural complex. That legitimated and set parameters for the emerging political order. So significant are these, and possibly other, religion linked exchanges that, arguably, without them a different new nation would have emerged from the American Revolution.”

It is interesting to contemplate whether or not the extent of protest against British government would have been so intense had the religious tradition of Boston and the rest of Massachusetts actually been Church of England. Because the area of Boston  was in a large majority Puritanical and therefore fiercely Protestant, it allowed more freedom of thought and belief as well as highlighting one of the major disparities between the colonies and their motherland. This can pertain back to the Bishop controversy; the Church of England could only be installed in the colonies if Episcopal authority was established and therefore we can see how Americans were anxious over their religious liberties becoming infringed upon. John F. Wilson argues that Boston’s “liberal religious sub-culture,” contributed to the fear that the colonies were going to become enslaved by Britain.

Despite the clergy’s extensive opposition to the British government, it must also be remembered that many members of the clergy remained devout royalists who were only gradually turned over to the revolutionary cause. Jerald C. Brauer claims that the majority of the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, two of the largest churches, were in favour of revolution, where as it was among the Anglicans and the Methodists that the least resistance to the monarchy was found. Therefore it can be argued that although Protestantism was influential its influence can not be so easily determined as to be pro-revolutionary. Members of the Protestant faith were conservative in the same way many were radical. One historian has argued that the diverse range of religious belief through out the colonies greatly influenced the revolution: “close study of the areas committed to one side or the other supports the view that ethnic and religious differences were important determinants of Revolutionary behaviour.”

As well as a psychological, morale building and spiritual influence that the Protestant ministers had on the revolutionary people of America, one must also consider the clergy as educated, functional members of society, whom also had an influence on many useful and active occupations which helped the revolutionary cause: “Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the American Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislators, constitutional conventions and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops into battle.” High ranking members of the church must not be discounted as vital components of the revolution and its victory.

In conclusion, it is fair to say that Protestantism did influence the American Revolution. It was such a substantial part of colonial life that it would be inaccurate to assert that religion had a very little affect on the revolution. Membership of the church was selective and ministers were important and influential members of the society. The basis of the American Revolution and ultimately the Declaration of Independence were first enunciated by doctrines by the New England ministers. J. C. D. Clark dubs the American Revolution as, “the last great war of religion in the western world,” playing upon the differences between imperial Anglicanism and the demand for a tolerant heterodoxy. The importance of individual factors will always be contested in events such as the American Revolution; it is clear that Protestantism was important in determining incidents during and in the build up to the revolution. Yet fundamentally it is important not to overrate the affect Protestantism had on America in the eighteenth century. Although religion was entangled with political issues, it was on the other hand a separate component to the greater political occurrences in Britain and America which in due course shaped and instigated the American Revolution.

        

 Bibliography

• Francis D. Cogliano, Revolutionary America 1763 – 1815 (Routledge) 2000.
• Edward Countryman, The American Revolution (Penguin Books Ltd) 1985.
• Jack P. Green and J. R. Pole, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, (Blackwell Publishers) 1991.
• J.C.D Clark, The Language of Liberty 1660-1832 (University of Cambridge) 1994.
• Alfred F. Young, The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism, (Northern Illinois University Press) 1976.
• Robert A. Gross, The Minutemen and their World, (Hill and Wang) 1976.

Websites and Journals

• Jerald C. Brauer, Protestantism in America: A Narrative History  (Chapter 4- “Religion and Revolution)  
• John F. Wilson, ,  “Journal of Interdisciplinary History,” Vol. 23, No. 3, Religion and History. (Winter, 1993), pp. 597-613.

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