The Dawn of Religious Freedom in South Carolina

by Burke, William Lewis; Edgar, Walter B.

• ISBN13: 9781570036217
• ISBN10: 1570036217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr

Summary

Although South Carolina's colonial charter promised a safe harbor of religious freedom for these who were oppressed, eighteenth-century religious minorities in the colony found their rights were subjugated to those of the Anglicans. The Dawn of Religious Freedom in South Carolina contains eight essays by historians and legal scholars that trace the quest for religious equality by Protestant dissenters, Huguenots, Jews, Quakers, Afro-Carolinians, and Roman Catholics. Uncovering the historical roots of the separation of church and state, the contributors use South Carolina's experience to illustrate that religious freedom is more secure when widely shared. South Carolina was a beacon of religious freedom when compared to many other North American colonies. The contributors recount the incremental steps that culminated with the 1790 Constitution's grant of "free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference." Separate chapters revisit the experiences of the Huguenots, who found themselves caught in a political crossfire between Anglicans and Protestant dissenters; the Quakers, who ultimately left the state because of their inability to reconcile with the principles of a slaveholding society; the Afro-Carolinians, who created "psychological living space" through religion while their masters watched nervously for signs of rebellion; and the evangelicals, whose emphasis on equality before God brought ideas about egalitarianism to South Carolina society. The volume's contributors also enumerate Catholic and Jewish efforts to gain religious equality, and recount the leading roles played by such individuals as Jewish patriot Francis Salvador, Catholic bishop John England, and statesman Charles Pinckney.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Walter Edgar
The Dawn of Religious Freedom in South Carolina: The Journey from Limited Tolerance to Constitutional Right	1	(57)
James Lowell Underwood
``Without discrimination or preference'': Equality for Catholics and Jews under the South Carolina Constitution of 1790	58	(37)
James Lowell Underwood
``A bright era now dawns upon us'': Jewish Economic Opportunities, Religious Freedom, and Political Rights in Colonial and Antebellum South Carolina	95	(19)
Richard
Belinda Gergel
Public Politics and Private Faith: Huguenot Political Acculturation in South Carolina, 1687-1707	114	(12)
Alexander Moore
Seeking the Promised Land: Afro-Carolinians and the Quest for Religious Freedom to 1830	126	(20)
Bernard E. Powers Jr.
Religious Tolerance and the Growth of the Evangelical Ethos in South Carolina	146	(19)
Orville Vernon Burton
David Herr
``Your liberty in that province'': South Carolina Quakers and the Rejection of Religious Toleration	165	(19)
W. Scott Poole
Bishop John England and the Compatibility of the Catholic Church and American Democracy	184	(27)
Peter Clarke
James Lowell Underwood
Contributors	211	(2)
Index	213