Transatlantic Protestantism and American Independence

Bibliographic Data

ID11944081
AuthorsP J Marshall (0000-0003-1534-0764), Peter Marshall (0000-0001-7094-7732, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume36
Issue3
Pages345-362
Publication date2008-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03086530802318417
OpenAlexW2054334168
LanguageEN
References cited15

American independence in 1783 marked a clean break in constitutional relations with Britain. How other aspects of a complex pattern of transatlantic connections fared is less clear-cut: elements of continuity can be found as well as the effects of disruption. This paper is concerned with relations between the Protestant denominations in America and Britain. On the eve of the Revolution there are clear indications that, as in so many other aspects of Anglo-American life, British and American Protestant denominations were drawing closer to one another. The war put such connections under great strain. For some denominations, notably the Quakers and those British Rational Dissenters who had generally allied with revolutionary America, a return to something like the past was relatively easy. For Anglicans and Methodists, it was impossible and new and largely separate structures quickly evolved in the United States. The war also drove a wedge between many Scottish Presbyterians and members of the older English Dissenting bodies and their American counterparts, who after the peace increasingly asserted their autonomy. In time new patterns of transatlantic Protestant cooperation developed, often outside formal denominational structures. The disruptive effects of a long and bitter war on what had been close-knit Christian communities should not, however, be underestimated

Dissenting opinion · Independence (probability theory · Political economy · Political science · Protestantism · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions

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