APUSH, Mr. Kujawa
Unit 2 “Religion In The Thirteen Colonies”
Purpose: To evaluate the role and contributions of religion.
Process:
01. Use the documents and chart to respond to these questions.
a. “Puritanism is a rigorous and realistic effort to address the harsh
realities of life.” Defend.
b. How was Massachusetts Bay Colony simultaneously theocratic,
democratic, oligarchic, and authoritarian?
c. How does William Penn’s “holy experiment” stand in stark contrast
to “city on a hill”?
d. Why was Massachusetts “decaying before the eyes of Puritans” by
1700? How could their values of work ethic and self-reliance have
been a contributing factor?
e. “Revivalist preachers ran religion like a business to attract more
customers.” Support -and- refute this statement.
f. How did the Great Awakening reflect the mood of Americans by 1750?
g. Why would organized religion be opposed to Enlightenment principles?
h. Speculate why would blacks and women be intrigued by Enlightenment
principles.
i. What does salvation mean to Americans today? Explain.
“Religious In Colonial America” Documents
Document A--Chart
Document B--Number Of Adherents, 1740
Name
Congregationalists
Anglicans
Presbyterians
Lutheran
Dutch Reformed
Quakers
Baptists
Roman Catholics
Methodists
Jewish
Number
575,000
500,000
410,000
200,000
75,000
40,000
25,000
25,000
5,000
2,000
423
246
160
95
78
-96
27
---
Chief Locale
NE
NY, South
Frontier
PA
NY, NJ
PA, NJ, DEL
RI, PA, NJ, DEL
MD, PA
Scattered
NY, RI
Document C--Verdict, Trial Of Roger Williams, 1635
“Whereas Mr. Roger Williams hath broached and divulged diverse new and
dangerous opinions against the authority of the magistrates and churches here...it is
therefore ordered that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of his jurisdiction.
Document D--Letter, Thomas Barton to Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
November 25, 1776
I have been obliged to shut up my churches to avoid the fury of the populace
who would not permit the liturgy to be used unless the collects and prayers for the
King and royal family were omitted, which neither my conscience nor the declaration I
made and subscribed to when ordained would allow me to comply with. And although I
used every prudent step to give no offence, even to those who usurped authority and
rule and exercised the severest tyranny over us, yet my life and property have been
threatened upon mere suspicion of being unfriendly to what is called the American
cause. Indeed, every clergyman of the Church of England who dared to act upon
proper principles was marked out for infamy and insult; in consequence of which the
missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in particular have
suffered greatly. Some of them have been dragged from their horses, assaulted with
stones and dirt, ducked in water; obliged to flee from their lives, driven from their
habitations and families, laid under arrests and imprisoned.
Document E--Rhode Island Charter, 1644
Now know ye, that we be willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking of our
said loyal and loving subjects and to secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of
all their civil and religious rights...do hereby publish, grant, ordain, and declare...that
no person within the said colony at any time hereafter shall be any punished,
disquieted, or called into question, for any differences of opinion in matters of religion,
and do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every
person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully
have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences.
Document F--Letter, Peter Stuyvesant to the Dutch West India Company, 1654
The Jews who have arrived would nearly nearly all like to remain here, but
learning that they (with their customary usury and deceitful trading with the Christians)
were very repugnant...the Deaconry also fearing that owing to their present indigence
they might become a charge in the coming winter, we deem it useful to require them in
a friendly way to depart.
Document G--William Penn’s law
Firstly, no one shall be disturbed on account of his belief, but freedom of
conscience shall be granted to all inhabitants of the province, so that every nation may
build and conduct churches according to their desires.
Document H--Maryland Act of Toleration, 1649
No persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect
of their religion, or in the free exercise thereof, or be compelled to the belief or
exercise of any other religion, against their consent.
Document I
In the early years of Georgia’s settlement the principal concerns of Bray and
Oglethorpe are clearly evident. This colony welcomed Lutherans fleeing persecution in
Salzburg, Moravians leaving the protection of Saxony, Scottish Presbyterians escaping
political and economic distress to build at Darien an outpost against the Spanish. Even
Jews, though forbidden to come, arrived in 1733. Oglethorpe not only permitted them
to stay but granted them land as well; soon synagogue services were heard in
Savannah.
Document J--Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”, 1741
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards
with great weight and pressure towards hell; and, if God should let you go, you would
immediately sink, and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf; and your
healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all
your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of
hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock...
....O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in! 'Tis a great furnace of
wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of fire and of wrath that you are held over in the
hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as
against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of
Divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder...
Document K--Heinrich Muhlenberg, Journals (1751)
Now that the Dutch language has become easier for me, and since it seemed to
me to be a pity to spend Sunday in New York for such a small group alone, I decided to
conduct a brief English service on Sunday evenings, though it is rather difficult during
the week to meditate and write out three sermons in three different languages along
with house catechizations and many other duties...Having one copy of the English hymn
book, I had to read each stanza separately and sing it for them. I soon observed that
the English people did not know our tunes, so I selected familiar English melodies which
fitted some of our Lutheran hymns. Then the whole congregation sang very pleasingly.
Document L--Description Of The Former And Present Condition Of New Sweden, 1759
The people [of Delaware] waited, but no clergyman came. All the church service
they now had [1692] was that an old man sat and read sermons on the gospels. The
young people were not very anxious to hear these things. The youth who came were
fonder of riding races than of attending Divine service. There was no order, no
reverence among the people. It was time for God to help them, for all human help had
failed.