FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM: How Virginia's Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution and Religious Liberty John Andrew Ragosta Rixeyville, Virginia M.A., George Washington University, 2004 J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1984 B.S., Grove City College, 1981 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Virginia May2008 11 © Copyright by John Andrew Ragosta All Rights Reserved May2008 lll ABSTRACT Before the American Revolution, the Anglican Church was the official, "estab- lished" church in the colony of Virginia; "dissenters," in particular Baptists and Pr~sbyte- rians, faced serious discrimination, harassment, even arrest. Yet, in spite of this persecu- tion and the dominant political position that members of the established church main- tained in the new state, these sects - accounting for as much as one-third of Virginia's population - became instrumental in supporting the fight for independence and the close- ly-related fight for religious freedom. During the Revolution, Virginia's Anglican political establishment and dissenters entered into a complex and extended negotiation. Baptists. and Presbyterians agreed to · support the Revolution, including mobilizing troops (fill:d the evidence indicates that they did mobilize as promised); in return, Virginia's political leaders provided greater reli- gious liberty. By the war's end, establishment leaders found that dissenters could no longer be ignored, and dissenters played the critical role in defeat of proposals for a gen- eral assessment to benefit all Christian sects and in adoption of Jefferson's Statute for Es- tablishing Religious Freedom. Contrary to the view of many historians that the democratizing influence of evan- gelical religion republicanized the polity after the Great .Awakening, in Virginia, control by the established political leadership was largely undiminished as the war approached. Thus, the Revolution was not so much a gentry response to dislocation caused by the evangelical "Awakening" in pre-war years; rather, during the Revolution, the political lV and religious establishment was forced to accept dissenter demands and, in the process, dissenters were politicized and the polity democratized. This dissertation also considers the extent to which British leadership responded to the role of religious dissent in the political milieu of revolutionary Virginia. Finally, this study considers the ramifications of this dialogue between dissenters and patriot leaders for our understanding of religious freedom. While there is little doubt that development of religious freedom in Virginia played a central role in development of religious liberties in other states and in the First Amendment, the dissenters' part in that development and their extremely robust understanding of that freedom-including a strict separation between church and state - has not been adequately privileged. V TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................. vi INTRODUCTION ............................•......•............................. 1 CHAPTER 1: VIRGINIANS DISSENT: SNAKES, HORNETS AND BRIMSTONE ................. 22 2: NEGOTIATING SUPPORT FOR THE WAR AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ........•..62 3: MOBILIZING SUPPORT: DID THE DISSENTERS FIGHT? ..................... 114 4: AFTER THE WAR: ARESURGENTESTABLISHMENTANDTHEENDOF COMPULSION .......................................................... 154 5: BRITISH INACTION AND PLANS FOR SUCCESS ............................200 6: WHAT DID THEY FIGHT, AND BARGAIN, FOR? ...........................232 TABLES AND MAPS ..............................................•..........•...285 APPENDICES A: PERSONS PERSECUTED FOR RELIGION: 18TH CENTURY VIRGINIA, POST-1763 ...291 B: BAPTISTS V. PRESBYTERIANS: LEADING THE FIGHT FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM .. .307 C: CALCULATING DENOMINATIONAL SUPPORT FOR MOBILIZATION IN VIRGINIA DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ......................................... .327 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................... 338 vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Any graduate student can regale those who would listen with stories about the travails of research in various archives: finding shelves empty which should include an important volume, finding that a text relied upon by another author does not quite provide the information or argument suggested, spending hours in front of a creaking microfilm machine (alas, still necessary today) to find that critical pages are illegible no matter the magnification or focus. Handwritten eighteenth century documents provide an additional opportunity for concentration and headaches. Equally frustrating when one is engaged in the extraordinarily intensive effort to place oneself into the life of a society centuries past and produce an important work of scholarship is to be constantly reminded of the admin- istrative requirements of twenty-first century educational institutions - sometimes not the most efficient or user-friendly operations. Often, on the all too infrequent occasions when I would find the opportunity to visit Peter Onuf s office, in the course of our con- versation I would mention the slowness of research or writing or the frustrations of re- search or academia. Inevitably, Peter would end our conversation by asking - already knowing the answer - "Are you still having fun?" All things considered, I have had a great deal of fun and am honored to have had the opportunity to pursue a graduate degree in history, first at George Washington University and then at the University of Virginia. To all who had a part in that, from professors to librarians, to administrators, to col- leagues, to students, I am deeply grateful. I must mention in particular the initial guid- ance and constant encouragement of David Silverman of George Washington University. vii In terms of this specific project, I am, of course, deeply indebted to the invaluable assistance of Peter Onuf with his remarkable ability to formulate ideas and grasp the broad implications (not to mention the possibilities) of incomplete research. In addition, I hope that I can do justice to the very insightful suggestions of my dissertation commit- tee: Joseph Kett, Chuck Mccurdy, Heather Warren and Peter. I would be remiss not to mention particularly the exceptionally kind assistance of a number of librarians, including those at Alderman Library ( especially the government document librarians Anne Benham, Elizabeth Margutti and Barbie Selby) and the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, the British National Archives in London (where I did do a good bit of research while celebrating a wonderful twenty-fifth anniversary), the Library of Virginia (especially Brent Tarter's suggestions and assis- tance), the Union Theological Seminary, the Baptist Historical Society at the University of Richmond, the Rockefeller Library in Williamsburg and, no less, the Culpeper County Library (where Ann Robson and the rest of the staff always cheerfully assisted in placing odd Interlibrary Loan requests). In addition, I was the recipient of much kind guidance on the use of mapping software by Chris Gist of the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library. Of course, I am also deeply cognizant of the fact that an education is much more than research and writing. Whatever the reception of this work, I could not imagine hav- ing pursued this effort without the spectacular opportunity to discuss history, in all of its academic and modem meanings, with such fine colleagues. I will always be indebted to my brilliant and engaging friends from our HIUS 701-702 class and to those who have Vlll made Peter Onuf s Early American Seminar an exercise worthy of a long night's ride, especially Peter, Andrew O'Shaughnessy, Patrick Griffin and George Van Cleve. No one would expect that I could end these acknowledgements without publicly thanking my family. There are innumerable things for which to thank them-for Liz's cups of tea and plates of cookies, for changing our lives and moving to Rixeyville, for holidays and normal days and walks to the river. As any husband and parent can con- firm, my life is so intertwined with that of Liz, Greg and Sarah that I can no longer im- agine it without their presence. If they do not enjoy this book- early American history not being a top priority for any of them-I hope that, more importantly, they enjoyed and appreciate the time in Arlington and Rixeyville when I slowly stopped being a practicing lawyer so that I might pursue a compelling desire to study and teach history to future scholars. The self-absorbed practice of working on a dissertation would have been un- bearable without their constant presence, assistance and love. FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM: How Virginia's Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution and Religious Liberty INTRODUCTION Prior to the beginning of the American Revolution, no British colony was more protective of its established church, nor more abusive of its religious dissenters, than Vir- ginia. By the time of the Philadelphia constitutional convention in 1787, no state pro- vided more extensive and carefully-crafted protections for religious liberty than Virginia. Unfortunately, the magnitude and significance of this transformation have often been obscured or, at best, underestimated. To appreciate fully the change which occurred in Virginia during the American Revolution and the years immediately