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 affairsCongregational 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
chosenantinomianism
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 fathers 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

Denominationalismthe spread of competing

churchesarose 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 Whitfieldcatalyst of Great Awakening
English preacher who came to America in 1738.
played on feelings of his audiencereligious
emotionalism
Fire and Brimstone sermons
tent revivals

Whitfields style copied by others

Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God

Impact of the Great Awakening

Divisions in American Protestantism
Old Lightsopponents of Great Awakening
New Lightssupporters 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

Womens suffrage movement in U.S. dates from
1848 Womens Rights Convention held at Seneca
Falls, New York
Suffrage movement had its roots in the 19th century
reform movements for abolition, temperance, and
womens 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 Whitfieldcatalyst of Great Awakening
English preacher who toured America in 1738.
played on feelings of his audiencereligious 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 meetingsoften in tens or open fields
removed formality, and class structure of established churches

Acceptance ofeven 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 Lightsopponents of Great Awakening
New Lightssupporters 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 womens 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 womens 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