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Colonial Presbyterianism is a collection of essays that tell the story of the Presbyterian Church during its formative years in America. The book brings together research from a broad group of scholars into an accessible format for laymen, clergy, and scholars. Through a survey of important personalities and events, the contributors offer a compelling narrative that will be of interest to Presbyterians and all persons interested in colonial America's religious experience. The clergy described in these essays made a lasting impact on their generation both within the church and in the emerging ethos of a new nation. The ecclesiastical issues that surfaced during this period have tended to be the perennial issues with which Presbyterians have been concerned ever since that time. Now at the three-hundredth anniversary of Presbyterian organization in America, Colonial Presbyterianism is a timely reengagement with the old faith for a new day.
Beginning with the first colonists and continuing down to the present, the dominant narrative of New England Puritanism has maintained that piety and prosperity were enemies, that the rise of commerce delivered a mortal blow to the fervor of the founders, and that later generations of Puritans fell away from their religious heritage as they moved out across the New England landscape. This book offers a new alternative to the prevailing narrative, which has been frequently criticized but heretofore never adequately replaced. The author’s argument follows two main strands. First, he shows that commercial development, rather than being detrimental to religion, was necessary to sustain Puritan religious culture. It was costly to establish and maintain a vital Puritan church, for the needs were many, including educated ministers who commanded substantial salaries; public education so that the laity could be immersed in the Bible and devotional literature (substantial expenses in themselves); the building of meeting houses; and the furnishing of communion tables--all and more were required for the maintenance of Puritan piety. Second, the author analyzes how the Puritans gradually developed the evangelical impulse to broadcast the seeds of grace as widely as possible. The spread of Puritan churches throughout most of New England was fostered by the steady devotion of material resources to the maintenance of an intense and demanding religion, a devotion made possible by the belief that money sown to the spirit would reap divine rewards. In 1651, about 20,000 English colonists were settled in some 30 New England towns, each with a newly formed Puritan church. A century later, the population had grown to 350,000, and there were 500 meetinghouses for Puritan churches. This book tells the story of this remarkable century of growth and adaptation through intertwined histories of two Massachusetts churches, one in Boston and one in Westfield, a village on the remote western frontier, from their foundings in the 1660’s to the religious revivals of the 1740’s. In conclusion, the author argues that the Great Awakening was a product of the continuous cultivation of traditional religion, a cultural achievement built on New England’s economic development, rather than an indictment and rejection of its Puritan heritage.
The idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the town and church documents written and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in the breadth of its scope, this study takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir's comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England than what emerges from looking at only a few famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society but also reveals the stress and strains on church-state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more "English" and much less "American" than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.
This book offers a new interpretation of political reform in the settler colonies of Britain’s empire in the early nineteenth century. It examines the influence of Scottish Presbyterian dissenting churches and their political values. It re-evaluates five notorious Scottish reformers and unpacks the Presbyterian foundation to their political ideas: Thomas Pringle (1789-1834), a poet in Cape Town; Thomas McCulloch (1776-1843), an educator in Pictou; John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878), a church minister in Sydney; William Lyon Mackenzie (1795-1861), a rebel in Toronto; and Samuel McDonald Martin (1805?-1848), a journalist in Auckland. The book weaves the five migrants’ stories together for the first time and demonstrates how the campaigns they led came to be intertwined. The book will appeal to historians of Scotland, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the British Empire and the Scottish diaspora.
“[A] superior, wide-ranging text-book... Of the thirteen attractively-written chapters, six cover the period to 1713, four take the story to the end of the French and Indian War (the ‘neglected’ period is not neglected), and the last three deal with the crises that culminated in the Declaration of Independence. The focus is firmly on English-speaking, white people in the thirteen colonies, but blacks, Indians, the West Indies and Europeans and their colonies are skilfully introduced at the relevant points... the author has produced a tightly-written, comprehensive narrative (where necessary he points out the gaps in scholarship) that is smoothly blended with analysis, including undogmatic, judicious considerations of often controversial historiographical questions (further illuminated by a useful bibliography). The fine synthesis of recent scholarship and preoccupations is a major strength and alone should give the book wide readership and course adoption... Mr. Simmons... has written one of the best US colonial history texts.” — Wallace Brown, Journal of American Studies “Richard C. Simmons has written a textbook which... brings the burgeoning scholarship on early America under control and provides students with a graceful, rigorous introduction to American colonial history... this book presents a major problem in western history with integrity and assurance.” — Robert M. Calhoon, The Journal of American History “The American Colonies is a triumph of condensation... This is a highly successful ‘updated narrative introduction to early American history’, of value to students in both the American and the British colonial fields.” — Ian R. Christie, The English Historical Review “The American Colonies is, in Professor Jack P. Greene’s words which appear on the dustcover, ‘an extraordinarily judicious and intelligent synthesis of a vast literature...;’ with his judgment I fully concur. Professor Simmons has succeeded in that most difficult part of the historian’s craft: the creation of a general but succinct narrative which provides a distinct thesis based upon the research of specialists.” — Sheldon A. Silverman, The Canadian Historical Review “The American Colonies is doubly welcome, for its lucidity and scholarship and for the manner in which it distils an enormous literature with clarity and insight. It will be indispensable for specialist and student alike... the author’s mastery of a vast literature (the bibliography is splendid) makes the work much more valuable than an ordinary textbook.” — A. C. Davies, The Economic History Review “This book represents a considerable achievement which must be approached with respect and even awe... The writing is lively, the narrative line propelling, the organization balanced. R. C. Simmons has digested the recent scholarship and made it his own... The American Colonies deserves to be widely read — and admired for its merits — both within and without the classroom.” — J. M. Bumsted, The William and Mary Quarterly “Simmons has mastered the extensive literature of colonial American history and draws it together clearly, concisely and thoughtfully... probably the best place to begin the study of the American colonies.” — M. D. Kaplanoff, History “Simmons’ book is without a doubt a work of high academic rigor, intelligent, powerful and surprisingly clear in its rich content. This is a book every specialist or advanced student of American civilization cannot easily do without and to which he will constantly return.” — Christian Lerat, Revue Française d’Études Américaines
The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of the Ulster Plantation and of the influences that formed the character of the Scotch-Irish people. The author commences with a detailed discussion of the events leading to the Scottish migration to Ulster in the seventeenth century, followed by an examination of the causes of the secondary exodus of these same "Scotch-Irish" to North America before the end of the century. Entire chapters are then devoted to the Scotch-Irish settlement in New England, New York, the Jerseys, Pennsylvania, and along the colonial frontier. Special chapters take up the role of the Scotch-Irish in the development of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the Scotch-Irish in the American Revolution, and the role of the Scotch-Irish in the spread of popular education in America.
On fire for God--a sweeping history of puritanism in England and America Begun in the mid-sixteenth century by Protestant nonconformists keen to reform England's church and society while saving their own souls, the puritan movement was a major catalyst in the great cultural changes that transformed the early modern world. Providing a uniquely broad transatlantic perspective, this groundbreaking volume traces puritanism's tumultuous history from its initial attempts to reshape the Church of England to its establishment of godly republics in both England and America and its demise at the end of the seventeenth century. Shedding new light on puritans whose impact was far-reaching as well as on those who left only limited traces behind them, Michael Winship delineates puritanism's triumphs and tribulations and shows how the puritan project of creating reformed churches working closely with intolerant godly governments evolved and broke down over time in response to changing geographical, political, and religious exigencies.