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Is God Blue: Religion and Law in Colonial America |
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The historical documents extracted from Colonial American law books reveal that crime and punishment were deeply intertwined with religion. First of all, many crimes were inherently religious in nature. Second, many otherwise secular crimes were forbidden on the basis of religion and punished according to what religious texts demanded. The freedom of religion that we take for granted today was notably absent in those times. Most colonies required weekly church attendance, and all forbade working on Sunday. Early Virginia law reads that “[a]ll persons whatsoever upon the Sabaoth daye shall frequente divine service and sermons both forenoon and afternoon” (Laws and Documents). Failure to comply with this resulted in disenfranchisement or worse. For example, in Connecticut, a man was not allowed to vote unless “he is converted and a member of one of the churches allowed in the dominion” (Connecticut). The penalty for non-attendance could also be financial, as in Virginia, where non-church-goers were taxed a pound of tobacco for one offense and a punitive 50 pounds for a month’s truancy (Laws and Documents). Note that private religiosity or even public observance were not sufficient; it had to be the right sort of church, which varied from colony to colony. This interdenominational hostility is evident in Anglican Virginia, where a ship that brought “any persons called Quakers” was penalized and the Quakers themselves were “imprisoned without baile or mainprize” until they could be deported (Laws and Documents). A notable exception to this pandemic religious intolerance was Pennsylvania, whose Quaker founders allowed any sort of worship, so long as it was Christian and didn’t mandate church attendance (Heritage). If a person’s beliefs were so peculiar as to be considered heretical, even their basic civil rights were at risk. In Connecticut, the law mandated that “[n]o food or lodging […] be offered to a heretic” (Connecticut). Those who “by direct exprest, impious or presumptuous ways, deny the true God and his Attribute” in New York were simply executed (Excerpts from the Duke of York). Massachusetts likewise executed blasphemers (Russell) and even relatively liberal Pennsylvania required fines and imprisonment for “whosoever shall Speake Loosly and prophanely of Almighty God Christ Jesus the Holy Sperit or the Scriptures of truth” (Heritage). Aside from punishing church truancy, Sabbath-breaking, heresy and other clearly religious transgressions, many laws existed to enforce traditional Christian moral beliefs, especially in the realm of sexuality. These laws were pulled straight from Leviticus, often down to the phrasing. For example, Massachusetts law required death of “any man [that] LYETH WITH MAN-KINDE as he lieth with a woman”, and explicitly listed Biblical chapter and verse in support (Russell). Intolerance of homosexuality was universal in colonial law, and death was the usual penalty. Even for crimes that were neither religious nor sexual, the justification was Biblical and so was the punishment. Capital punishment was found everywhere, with permissive Pennsylvania mandating execution for murderers and justifying it as being “according to the Law of God and all Nations” (Heritage). This love of capital punishment extended to violations of Biblical law that we might consider minor offenses or non-offenses, to the extent that witches and disobedient children were to be killed (Russell). From the non-secular content and origins of these oppressive laws, it should be clear that religion played a major role in the colonies. As heterogeneous as they were when it came down to lifestyle and denomination, all the colonies shared the belief that the laws that bind society together are handed down by the Christian God, and differed mostly in the interpretation and strictness. The regions were very much broken down by what religious beliefs they endorsed and allowed. In Southern colonies, the state religion was Anglicanism, while New England was Congregational, and the Mid-Atlantic colonies required Christianity but often allowed any denomination. This religious favoritism didn’t generally prevent people of disallowed denominations from living in a particular colony, but often forced them to worship in private or even in secret, and were a barrier to trade. In the South, Anglicanism bound them to their mother country through shared belief. It was a key part of the culture of landed aristocracy fashioning themselves after British nobility. Those who didn’t conform to this religious requirement, like the Catholic Scots-Irish, migrated towards the back country and didn’t accumulate vast quantities of land. In New England, church life dominated civic affairs. Towns were built around churches, with people legally required to live close enough to attend weekly. There was also broad cultural impact. For example, the belief that reading the Bible protected people from Satanic influence led to public education in Massachusetts. The Mid-Atlantic colonies tended to be more relaxed about religion, especially in their lack of denominational specificity, which extended all the way to Catholicism in some cases. However, their laws were still Bible-based and all were expected to be Christian in word and deed. On the whole, the colonies differed in their approaches, with the Mid-Atlantic generally more tolerant than either the South or New England. This tolerance in the central region allowed it to serve as a kind of buffer between the extremists to either side of it. However, the various regions and even the colonies within each region had their distinct local flavors and a mutual wariness that kept them apart. Trade forced them to soften their religious intolerance and cultural xenophobia, because they had to abandon some of the more anti-materialistic religious mandates and local quirks in order to benefit from their success and to further it by doing business with those far away. Religion created and sustained the colonies, but they outgrew it over time. It was a ladder that, once climbed, must be thrown away. Its positive effects towards stabilizing society, forming a common basis for behavior and driving them to leave England in the first place, eventually held them back from benefiting from the natural resources of the New World and uniting against England for independence. It became something that they not only lacked a need for, but could no longer afford. America had to become ecumenical and even secular in order to grow a successful and generally homogenous nation. Works Cited
Connecticut Blue Laws (1640's-1660's?). The American Colonist's Library. 15 Oct 2004 <http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/bluelaws.html>.
"Excerpts from the Duke of York's Laws (1665-75) From "Colonial Laws of New York," 1896." Excerpts from the Duke of York's Laws (1665-75). 15 Oct 2004. <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/023.htm>.
Heritage, Doc. "The Great Law (Pennsylvania 1682)." Printable Great Law Transcription. The Pennsylvania State Archives. 15 Oct 2004 <http://www.docheritage.state.pa.us/documents/greatlawprint.htm>.
"Laws and Documents relating to religion in early Virginia, 1606-1660." Virtual Jamestown. 15 Oct 2004 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/016.htm>.
Russell, Thomas. "The Book of the General Lawes and Libertyes Concerning the Inhabitants of the Massachusets (1648; facsimile edition, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929).." Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648). American Legal History. 15 Oct 2004 <http://www.law.du.edu/russell/lh/alh/docs/lawslibertyes.html>.
Strachey, William. "Articles, Lawes, and Orders, Divine, Politique, and Martiall for the Colony of Virginea." The Laws of Virginia (1610-1611). 15 Oct 2004 <http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/divine5e/chapter2/medialib/primarysources2_2_2.html>.
Copyright 2004 |
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by Amanda Evans |
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Date: 12/08/03 |
