The Christian Nation

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Kathleen Wellman
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
National Origin ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
American Historical Association ◽  
Association Member ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Origin Myths ◽  
Christian Nation

This chapter begins with the question posed by a historian to the American Historical Association member forum, “Why do my students think America was founded as a Christian nation?” It explores how these curricula sustain crucial elements of that narrative by denying the influence of the Enlightenment and by making crucial claims about the founding: the Declaration of Independence defined a Christian nation; the American Revolution was either a Christian cause or not a revolution at all; and the Constitution, though silent on religion, nonetheless confirmed the intent of unquestionably Christian founders to establish a Christian nation. The chapter also highlights the nuanced work of historians of religion on these questions to show that such arguments contradict the historical consensus, are unduly simplistic, and are rooted in national origin myths.

“As a City on a Hill”

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-168
Author(s):  
Kathleen Wellman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Origin ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
History Texts ◽  
Origin Myths ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Christian Nation ◽  
English Colonies ◽  
Religious Fervor

These curricula proudly distinguish themselves from other histories of America; they intend, as the Abeka textbook puts it, to offer “uplifting history texts,” allowing students to understand “its traditional values.” This chapter explores these curricula’s commitment to providential history as English colonies founded the Christian nation. This story of unquestionable religious fervor and Christian virtue relies on nineteenth-century national origin myths. The chapter explores the central arguments used to make this case. They reject Jamestown because the colony adopted the unchristian practice of sharing goods and was no model of virtue. They point to the Massachusetts colonies as the establishment of a Christian city on a hill and herald the Mayflower Compact as the source of the subsequent founding documents of the new nation. They disparage or exclude other colonies and native peoples.

A Political Age

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Mitchell Sommers
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Political Events ◽  
London Corresponding Society

This chapter places Ebenezer and Manoah Sibly in the dramatic political events of their day, especially the American and French Revolutions, and the Treason Trials of the 1790s. Ebenezer is frequently cited as a radical Whig, who opposed slavery and supported the American Revolution and other radical causes. Little is said about Manoah’s politics, other than that as a New Church minister, he was of necessity a loyalist. However, a close examination of Ebenezer’s writing, and especially the timing of the publication of his comments on the American and French Revolutions, reveals him as much more moderate than has been asserted, especially in discussions of his nativity for the Declaration of Independence. On the other hand, Manoah’s work as shorthand taker for the London Corresponding Society and acceptance of Swedenborg’s dramatically radical theology reveal him as a profoundly radical thinker—and one who was moved to act on his convictions.

Patriot vs. Patriot: Social Conflict in Virginia and the Origins of the American Revolution

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-256
Author(s):  
MICHAEL A. McDONNELL ◽  
WOODY HOLTON
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Social Consensus ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Mount Vernon ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
Northern County

Virginia, Britain's most populous and arguably most important North American colony, once seemed the perfect fit for the “consensus” interpretation of the War of Independence. Indeed, the percentage of white colonists who became loyalists was probably lower in Virginia than in any other rebelling colony. The widespread agreement on secession from Britain should not, however, be mistaken for social consensus. The reality was that revolutionary Virginia was frequently in turmoil. One of the most intriguing of the local insurrections broke out in the northern county of Loudoun just five months before the Declaration of Independence. In February 1776, the county erupted into a heated confrontation pitting gentlemen against their less wealthy neighbours. Lund Washington, who was managing Mount Vernon, warned his cousin, General George Washington, who was outside Boston training his fledgeling patriot army, that the “first Battle we have in this part of the Country will be in Loudon” – not against British soldiers, but against fellow patriots. Within a week, the revolutionary government in Williamsburg, the Committee of Safety, felt compelled to send troops to quell the disturbances. Yet, for months afterwards, gentry Virginians worried that their effort to suppress the rebellion had failed. In mid-May, Andrew Leitch told Leven Powell of Loudoun, “I really lament the torn and distracted condition of your County.” The “troublesome times,” as another gentleman called them, were slow to abate.

Relief in the Premises: Divorce as a Woman's Remedy in New York and Indiana, 1815–1870

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma Basch
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Domestic Affairs

When Thomas Jefferson assessed the pros and cons of legalizing divorce before the American Revolution, he came out firmly on the side of divorce. “No partnership,” he declared, in a rationale that prefigured the Declaration of Independence, “can oblige continuance in contradiction to its end and design.” Among the few misgivings he had, however, was the problem of dividing marital assets, and while he was convinced a man could get a wife at any age, he was concerned that a woman beyond a certain age would be unable to find a new partner. Yet he envisioned divorce as a remedy for women. A husband, he noted, had “many ways of rendering his domestic affairs agreeable, by Command or desertion,” whereas a wife was “confined & subject.” That he assessed divorce as a woman's remedy while representing a client intent on blocking a wife's separate maintenance is not without irony. Still, in a world where the repudiation of a spouse was a husband's prerogative, he believed that the freedom to divorce would restore “to women their natural right of equality.”

OUR REVOLUTIONARY MEDICAL HERITAGE

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-330
Author(s):  
Student
Keyword(s):  
Yellow Fever ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Aggressive Approach ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
American Medicine ◽  
Benjamin Rush

The aggressive approach that has characterized American medicine was evident even before the American revolution. Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a doctor whose influence on American medicine lasted for decades, believed that one of the hindrances to the development of medicine had been an "undue reliance upon the powers of nature in curing disease," a thesis he blamed on Hippocrates. . . . Rush was converted to aggressive medicine during a yellow-fever epidemic, when he found that larger and larger quantities of mercury and jalap (purges) appeared to cure the patients. . . . Rush [also] believed that blood-letting was beneficial and urged his disciples to continue bleeding until four-fifths of the body's blood was removed. . . . He was imbued with the idea that even nature itself had been put under control of the American revolution.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Carlton F.W. Larson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
The Law

The Introduction opens with a vignette of James Wilson, prominent attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence, fighting for his life against members of the Philadelphia militia in the “Fort Wilson” incident of 1779. It then turns to the primary themes of the book: treason and juries. Treason was a central issue of the American Revolution, shaping the early debates over the legality of British actions, the treatment of British adherents, and eventually the suppression of internal rebellions. Juries played a critical role in this process, and this book provides the most detailed analysis of eighteenth-century American jurors yet written. The book focuses on Pennsylvania, as this was the most critical jurisdiction for the law of treason.

Jefferson, Madison, and the Making of the Constitution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Broadwater
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
James Madison ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Constitutional Thought

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, “Father of the Constitution,” were two of the most important Founders of the United States as well as the closest of political allies. Yet historians have often seen a tension between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution. Moreover, to some, the adoption of the Constitution represented a repudiation of the democractic values of the Revolution. In this book, Jeff Broadwater explores the evolution of the constitutional thought of these two seminal American figures, from the beginning of the American Revolution through the adoption of the Bill of Rights. In explaining how the two political compatriots could have produced such seemingly dissimilar documents but then come to a common constitutional ground, Broadwater reveals how their collaboration ---and their disagreements---influenced the full range of constitutional questions during this early period of the American republic.

scholarly journals Anti-Fascism, Anti-Communism, and Memorial Cultures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Todd Bernhardt
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
National Origin ◽  
World War ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Global Study ◽  
Origin Myths ◽  
Military Units

The International Brigades were volunteer military units that fought for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1938. Some 40,000-45,000 men fought in the International Brigades as an act of anti-Fascism, international solidarity, and national preservation. Although many historians have examined the volunteer soldiers’ motivations, wartime experiences, and reintegration into their home societies on a national basis, there has not yet been a global study of veteran reintegration and memorial culture. This global comparative study demonstrates that a state’s acceptance or rejection of their Brigade veterans was dictated by a global anti-Fascist and anti-Communist divide. In nations that underwent an ideological shift from anti-Fascism to anti-Communism after World War II, the veterans were repressed as potential threats and denied access to state-sponsored memory. In response to this exclusion, the veterans created their own memorial cultures. In nations that retained or renewed their commitment to anti-Fascism, the veterans were welcomed into the pantheon of state heroes as these states incorporated the Brigades into their national origin myths.

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