From: jtn@nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Puritans
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:44:15 GMT
Followup-To: rec.org.sca
Organization: SCA

Unto the good gentles of the Rialto does Hossein Ali Qomi send greetings and
prayers for the blessings of Allah.

Richard Britnell quoted Ailsa and then commented on the role of Puritans in
early American society:

>>but the puritans were NOT an obscure religious group in america. they were the
>>dominant religious group in most of new england.  their infulence on our
>>culture has been quite profound, much more extensive than most peopel
>>realize...
>
>I'm not as much of an expert on american history as I would like to be, but
>the vast majority of the Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution were
>not Puritans but Anglicans (or Episcopalians in the U.S.)  It seems to
>me that, at least by 1770, the majority of the English colonists in
>British North America were Anglican.  Anglicanism was also the only religion
>to receive any kind of official sanction in any English colony outside of
>Quebec.  I realize that the Pilgrims play a big role in American mythos, but
>I would hesitate to say that they played as big a role in American history
>as yuo make out.

There are a few problems with this analysis:
	1.  The fact that the vast majority of Loyalists emigrated after the
American Revolution were Anglicans tells us that the vast majority of Loyalists
were Anglicans, but little else about the distribution of denominations in
American colonial society.  A practicing Anglican was _far_ more likely to
be a loyalist because of social class and region than other colonists and,
thus, Anglicans are heavily overrepresented in the emigre population.
	2.  The assertion that "Anglicanism was also the only religion to
receive any kind of official sanction in any English colony outside of
Quebec" is simply false.  I point out that the _quo warranto_ proceedings
against the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the Court of Chancery
(23 Oct. 1684) were largely based on the colony's prohibition of Anglican
services and restriction of suffrage to full members of the Congregationalist
Church.  Furthermore, the charter granted to Lord Baltimore in 1632 gave
rights of religious regulation to the proprietor, who promulgated the Act for
Religious Tolerance (1649), which granted official recognition to all 
Christian sects; the proprietory charter of 1681, granted to William Penn,
also gave rights of religious regulation to the proprietor who, in turn,
gave official sanction to the Society of Friends.
	Throughout the colonial period, Congregationalism remained the official
church of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Plantation (until consolidation
with Mass. Bay after the Dominion of New England was dissolved), Connecticut,
and New Hampshire.  With the replacement of the Congregationalist theocracy
by a mercantile elite in the late 1690's greater toleration of other
sects was observed, but the vast majority of the coastal population of
these colonies was Congregationalist well into the 19th century.  Anglicanism
was majoritarian only in the tidewater of Virginia, North and South Carolina,
and Georgia for most of the colonial period, although after 1748 it appears
to have become majoritarian in Pennsylvania and in New York City after 1750.
Most of New York Province was Dutch Reformed until the 1790s and the western
frontier, especially the piedmont of the south colonies, was without
organized religion save for itinerant preachers spreading the various Baptist
and Presbyterian sects which sprang up in the "Great Awakening."  Anglicanism
was never even close to being the majority sect in British North America.
	3.  Since the original thread dealt with the influence of Puritanism
on fashion, It's worth pointing out that the wearing of drab clothing by
"Puritans" in North America is a myth.  Diary evidence and tax records for
textile exports to those colonies in which Congregationalism was dominant
suggest that these "Puritans" favored bright colors (red and pastels were
particularly prized); the shunning of ornamentation was largely restricted
to the sanctuary, not daily life.  It was the Quakers and other, primarily
German, Pietists (e.g., Mennonites and Amish) who favored dark colors.

In Service,

Hossein/Greg
(who, thanks to American History requirements in most undergraduate
curricula, teaches far more American History than he would prefer, and
who does have some research interests in British colonial administration)