How the States got their shapes (Part 5: Church and States)

Have you ever wonder how some of our states are shaped the way they are, or why? Well, a one-time documentary series called "How the States got their shapes" on the History Channel tried to answer some of those questions about them.

This is Part 5 of a 7-part wiki series about this documentary where I tell you what was talked about on some of those episodes, and I'll give my own opinion on it, or know what the episodes didn't tell you. In the episode; "Church and States" Brian tells us how some of our states were shaped by religion, such as the states in New England, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Utah.

## Church and States

In the first part of this episode, Brian goes to the border between Kansas and Missouri.

It is here that every year, the 2 college football teams from the Universities of Kansas and Missouri meet at the football stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play. In some ways, American Football is rooted in warfare, like with Michigan State University and Ohio State University was over the Toledo war. This commemorates another war, this time, over slavery.

This is because sometime in the 1850s, Kansas (which was still a territory) but it wants to become a state. The problem is that America's slavery issue is about to boil over, because of this, Kansas had a difficult choice to enter the Union as either a free or a slave state. However, Missouri wanted to make that decision for them as Missouri militias invaded Kansas and burned several Kansas towns (which included Lawrence) to the ground. It wouldn't be long until people from Kansas would return the favor. This time in Kansas history would be known as "Bleeding Kansas" because of the awful violence and hostilities between Kansas and Missouri.

So, you may ask "Why does this have to do with religion"? Well, back in the eastern states, slavery was seen as evil, and a lot of Christians saw it as their job to destroy it.

There was one man and his group of anti-slavery activists that went to Kansas and............took things a bit too far, his name was "John Brown". He and his abolitionists went to Kansas during the "Border War" and there, they faced a group of pro-slavery activists, and killed them by using broadswords. John Brown and his abolitionists were very religious men who lived (and died) by the bible, and even made themselves believe that they were doing the work of Jehovah (the Christian God). John Brown's actions in Kansas are still debated today, whether he was a hero or a terrorist. Nevertheless, his actions did a world a favors for Kansas, as it finally became a state in 1861, 2 weeks before the Civil War officially began.

### Feeling "Blue" about your liquor

This picture of the US shows some states as colored blue (no duh), why is that, has Johnny lost it? No. This is about something called "Blue Laws" as in outlawing the purchasing and consumption of alcoholic beverages on certain times of the say, and certain days of the week. Some people may know of these blue laws as to keep people from drinking after attending church (namely on Sunday). The states colored light blue have their own "watered down" version of these blue laws, Illinois outlaws "2 for 1" drinks, and bars in Massachusetts don't have happy hours.

These blue laws began back during the times of the Pilgrims and the Puritans where they set their own "church rules" to promote upright behavior, but these rules didn't apply to alcohol, people back in those days drank more alcohol than water, and the reason for that is (ironic by today's standards) alcohol is safer to drink as the alcohol would kill any water-borne disease which would be in water.

Laws against alcohol wouldn't begin until after the Civil War. This is where Brian returns to Kansas and to the border war town of Lawrence where he meets a man who owns a stillery in the Kansas town, and he even told Brian that he received death threats from religious people all over Kansas.

This is where the show talks about a deeply religious woman named "Carrie Nation". She may look like your sweet ol' grandma, but she was just as feisty as your ex-wife. A devout Christian, Nation would go all over Kansas and intentionally destroy Saloons (as bars weren't a thing yet) with a hatchet and even bags of rocks. In fact, Nation would kick off what would be known as "Prohibition" which would be federal law by the 1920s, Nation's actions would also make Kansas be the last state to give up prohibition 12 years after the law was abolished.

Even today, Kansas has around 19 dry counties, in fact dry counties can be found mostly in the south. Though the northern states also have counties that follow blue laws.

The episode then also talks about a brief generalization of New England as we all know that the Pilgrims and the Puritans landed in what would be known as Massachusetts, the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth in 1620, and the Puritans landed in Salem almost a decade later. We all know that the Pilgrims came to America to find religious freedom (and still the reason why foreign people come to America), the Puritans wanted to retain the old fashioned ways of religion, but try to "Purify" it from within. This difference in practicing their religion is what separated the Pilgrims and the Puritans, and thus made the states we see in New England today. The episode also talks about one Puritan named "Roger Williams" who was so into Puritanism that even his fellow Puritans in Massachusetts wanted him out (boy, talk about getting the cold shoulder) and this made him settle on a small island off the coast of New England, and yes this is where "Rhode Island" was born.

### Going Amish. Welcome to the "Penn"itentiary

Brian heads to Pennsylvania to talk about some of the religious stuff in the state. First, he talks about one group of religious people who basically became synonymous with Pennsylvania; the Amish.

Now, I've been to the Amish Country in Pennsylvania on more than just a few separate occasions, and they are, kinda "out of their time" so to say, though they make some good wooden furniture and carpets. The Amish (because they are out in farm land) usually invest mostly in the food industry (besides all the wooden furniture and carpets they make), they don't use any form of technology, or do they? In this episode, Brian does some poking around in the Amish Country and to his shock he sees an Amish person use a cell phone, and this led him back to Philadelphia where he meets an Amish person who...........isn't quite "Kosher" in Amish traditions, this man who Brian speaks to actually has a small store in Philadelphia with his (supposedly) children. So, maybe the Amish aren't so "out of their time" as we modern people tend to think. One of the reasons for this is because the Amish spread out of Pennsylvania and branched out to other states, now there's at least 28 states with Amish communities in them.

Brian stays in Pennsylvania to talk about a certain prison that tried to use religion to rehabilitate prisoners. This was called the "Pennsylvania System" where it was based on the Quaker (yes, those "Oat" guys) idea that people are inherently good and if they spend enough time in isolation, that they would become "Penitent", thus the term "Penitentiary" was coined, this was used in Pennsylvania's Eastern State Penitentiary. This prison housed 1 inmate in a cell and they had their focus on silence, and the walls and door jams were thick and even had guards wear their socks over their shoes so they don't make any noise. The cells also didn't have any windows only small skylights, this prison system was soon copied around the world, though it did convince the world that you can use religion to change the psyche of a criminal, but it turned out that the Pennsylvania System was actually counterproductive as they believe that the silence drove some inmates insane, the system was abandoned in 1913, but the Penitentiary remained open until the 1970s.

But there's more to the "Oat Guys" (the Quakers) than that prison facility. William Penn was given a huge patch of land by the British King, and that is when Pennsylvania was founded, but it had one problem, it had no outlet to the ocean, and its only way to get goods from Britain is the Delaware river (which is in Delaware) and it wouldn't be long until Pennsylvania found itself in competition with Maryland for Delaware, the King gives Delaware to Pennsylvania as the people of Delaware were more connected to the Quakers in Pennsylvania than the Catholics in Maryland. William Penn also what made the United States into a country with religious freedom as the Amish and the Jewish also moved in from Europe.

### The Mormon Question

In the last part of this episode, Brian heads to Utah, and talks about America's very own religion; Mormonism.

Mormonism was created by Brigham Young in Palmyra, New York. His religion was considered new for the time, so he got a bunch of followers. But his religious practices (namely Polygamy, meaning one can marry multiple spouses) didn't earn him and his religion any respect from the Government, so this is when Young and his followers would move from Palmyra to other places in the US, then they quickly realize that they wouldn't get along with the predominantly Christian society of America, this is when Young and his followers moved to the Great Salt Lake in 1847, and they arrived at a bad time, it was during the Mexican-American War which the US would eventually win, so their dreams of a Mormon nation were dashed, or were they?

After the Mexican-American War, the Mormons (still upset with American authority and unpopular with the American People) still wanted to have their religious empire called "Deseret" which would take up a lot of the southwest region of the US. The huge reason why the US banged heads with the Mormons is because of their theocratic ideals and Polygamy which was something the US considered unacceptable at the time. So, the US instead gave them the "Utah Territory" in 1850.

Both the Mormons and the US were also in competition for rich resources such as gold and silver, and the US would take those away from Utah (since it was a territory and the Government can still take it) the Great Basin had Silver (which was discovered in 1858), but the US would give the Silver to Nevada, Gold was in the Rockies, but the US would eventually give it to Colorado, and the northeast notch was created by Wyoming. This is when Mormonism would give in to the Government and abandon Polygamy and theocracy, eventually Utah was accepted as a state in 1896.

Mormonism is still deep in its own tradition despite it giving up on some of its practices, though Polygamy isn't practiced by Mormons anymore, but the practice now is to marry at an early age so you can have lots of children. At Brigham Young University (you may know it as BYU because of its Basketball team) the students have some peculiar dating rituals, and there's something at BYU which is called a "Non-Committal Makeout" (or NCMO for short) and even a system called a "Define Your Relationship" (or DTR for short) which is..........well, how would you define your relationship with your spouse. Some of the Students at BYU also get married while they're still going to college. Just another tale of how America is all about religious freedom.

Well, that'll do it for this part. In the next part (click here), we'll talk about how different American cultures have shaped some of out States, and almost split Maine into 2, and \*almost\* made a 51st State. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.