HISTORICAL SKETCHES

CANE CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

Number 33: January 2013 www.canecreek.org 6901 Orange Grove Rd., Hillsborough, NC 27278

Religious Liberty in Colonial North Carolina

In Sketch #32 we found that we could credit Shubal Stearns with sowing the seeds that eventually led to the establishment of main line Southern . He left Connecticut and headed south with a small band of followers. After finding that his group was not welcome in Virginia, he made his way into North Carolina, settling at Sandy Creek in 1754. His story made me curious about religious conditions in the various colonies. Virginia did not provide fertile grounds for his “Separate” Baptists but North Carolina did. Why was that?

The thirteen American colonies differed in their approach to religion. Much of what went on in America was a reflection of the sorry state of religious affairs that had existed in Europe since launched the protestant in 1517. Some local Princes supported Luther’s new religious movement. Others stuck to the traditional Roman Catholic Church. As the Reformation progressed, fractured into many competing movements and religion became politicized. This led to long and vicious wars that pitted Catholics against Protestants and Protestants against Protestants for well over a hundred years. The memory of these bloody religious conflicts is what later led to the American idea of the separation of church and state.

The who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 wished to build a shining "city on a hill" that would be run according to their cherished religious principles. They became known for persecuting anyone who tried to practice any other form of worship. Pennsylvania was settled by Quakers, Massachusetts by Puritans, Maryland by Catholics, and Rhode Island by Baptists. Each colony was rather intolerant of other brands of religion.

But what about Virginia and North Carolina? The story begins in the 16 th century. England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 and suddenly became a world naval power. It looked to America as a place to plant colonies and reap untold riches. The Pope had already divided the New World between Portugal and Spain. But Protestant England, ignored this ruling. In their view, any land that was unoccupied was up for grabs. Since the Spanish had settled no farther up the Atlantic coast than Florida, England considered the land to the north to be available.

After the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh’s “lost” colony in the 1580s, King James I granted a narrow strip of coastal land from South Carolina to Canada to two companies, the southern part of which he designated “Virginia.” The first Virginia charter was issued in 1606 but was silent on the matter of religion except to say that the Christian religion was to be propagated to the “infidels and savages” living there. The charter was rewritten in 1609 and required all settlers to acknowledge the King as the head of the Church of England in order to keep out Catholics who “affect the superstitions of the Church of Rome.” When the colony failed to prosper, the King took it over in 1624. British law now prevailed and the Church of England became the “established” religion of the colony. It was supported by tax money and attendance at church services was mandatory. We can now see one reason why Shubal Stearns, in 1753, found Virginia to be an uncomfortable fit for his little band of “Separates.”

Since there were no settlers south of Virginia, the King, by now Charles I, felt free, in 1629, to grant land south of Albemarle Sound to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath. The colony was called “Carolana.” Some historians think that Heath was acting on behalf of a group of fleeing religious persecution in France. The Heath charter failed to mention religion which may have been a deliberate omission intended to allow “dissenters” into the colony. (A dissenter was anyone who failed to acknowledge the Church of England.) Heath failed to actually establish a colony so in 1663 King Charles II chartered a new colony, now called “Carolina,” to eight of his supporters called “Lords Proprietors.” The charter referred to the Church of England but allowed for settlers who “could not conform to the ritual and belief of the established church.” This tolerant attitude was intended to attract new settlers to whom the Proprietors could sell land and thus make vast fortunes. It also set a pattern for the Carolina colony for the next 60 years.

The 1665 charter revision went even farther. It said that “no person shall in any way be molested, punished, disquieted, or called into question for any difference of opinion or practice in matters of religious discernments.”

The Proprietors solidified religious liberty when, in 1669, they issued “The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,” which said that “any seven or more people agreeing in any religion shall constitute a church” and “no person shall use any reproachful, reviling or abusive language against the religion of any church.” No other American colony had such a wide open policy toward all religions. Carolina became known for its religious liberty.

The King bought out the Proprietors in 1729 and took over the colony. He re-established the Church of England and sought to make it the “official” religion. But Carolina continued to go its own way in religious matters. Over time Carolina became home for Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. But Carolina’s tradition of religious freedom also led to quite a large number of people who avoided any religion whatsoever. Indeed, Carolina gained the reputation of being the least religious colony of all.

In 1701 the colonial legislature was persuaded to pass the “Vestry Act,” which authorized the levying of a tax to support the Established Church. Several Anglican churches were founded but there was a public outcry against the act. Nevertheless, several Anglican ministers were dispatched to the colony. They were uniformly met with a chilly reception. One minister ruefully said, in a letter back to England, “This paying of money [to support the church] puts them quite out of humor. They cannot endure to be charged for what they value so little as religion.”

To bring this point close to home, recall that Shubal Stearns, when he felt that he had to leave Virginia to find a more fruitful place, heard that North Carolina was destitute of religion and longed to hear a good rousing sermon. Stearns’ Sandy Creek Church quickly took root and flourished, which led to the establishment of the Haw River Church, which led to the founding, in 1789, of Cane Creek Baptist Church. Ed Johnson