Hi guys, me again -leaf. I wanted to try and take a shortcut here, and hope that you, my fellow hatrackers could offer some help. Does anyone know what the main religions of the south east where in the years... say... 1750-1850? And if so.. can you tell me the "positions" (bishop, priest, deacon, father, ect.) of that religion. I would be ever so grateful. If not, I will visit the great churches of St. Augustine and bother all of the priests until they can answer this. Thanks guys...
-leaf
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
I googled "history of religion in Florida" and found this, among others:
the catholic church if you are talking near new orleans,
church of england for the rest of the south with some independant churches starting up around that time (southern baptist comes to mind, evangelical may have started around that time too.)
I'm thinking a good resource for religious practices would be Mark Twain's works. They might not be completely factual but they are an accepted version of reality.
Unfortunately you are talking the Age of Reason and most publishable writers of the time considered organized religion to be a fanciful thing. Most of the founding fathers were Deists which was a philosophical religion, or Quakers, which is a very passive religion barely recognizable as modern christianity. But neither of these are what you are looking for. Quakers were mostly PA and NY and Deism was a philosophy similar to unitarianism.
Posted by Valtam2 (Member # 3174) on :
and Google has plenty of different ways to search. Look in the "more" section next to the "local" link. Google is definitely your friend when trying to find information.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
If the area in question is, say, Spanish Florida or any of the stretch of coast all the way to Mexico, then the official religion would be Roman Catholicism. I doubt if any other form would have been tolerated.
Later, with the area under American influence and control, American settlers would have brought their own brands.
I cannot recall the point coming up in the history books, other than mention in passing of the establishment of missions here and there...but, I've come to realize lately, most recent accounts I've read were written by those with a secular orientation, and references to faith tend to disappear. Not that I'm serious about religion...but I've also come to realize that a lot of historical figures were serious about it, and to lose this aspect of their lives is to lose a great deal.
But I digress...
Posted by Matt Lust (Member # 3031) on :
Leaf
It really depends on what town you were in. The bigger thus older towns during that time frame had a heavy episcopalian/Anglican/Church of England influence but in towns with german influence you saw a far amount of Lutherans.
During this time, there also was a rise in the number of itenerant preachers who were usually methodist of either the Wesleyan or Calvinist in persuasion.
Baptists didn't really make their surge in the south until post Revolutionary war period.
But as a whole you were as like as not to have most of the small town churchs be generic "christian" in the parishoners minds, though the preacher would have a specific theological bent based on his education
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
C of E in Ga, and in Va. I'm pretty sure that's true for NC and SC.
Methodism wasn't developed until early 1800's, splitting from C of E.
Posted by Leaf II (Member # 2924) on :
Thanks, guys. I know about google, believe... if there WERE any true religion, universaly, I would say it's google. I am definately a fan. But there is SO MUCH info when searched, I was just hoping to find someone who has already a knowledge base, perhaps their own particular religion, who could offer some help, mostly on what the offices of that religion are. Like.. for church of england... if there is anybody here (however unlikely) that is a member, would be able to tell me the particulars of what I am looking for. But the information offered so far is very helpful. So thanks again.
-Leaf II
Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
Church of England is very similar in its structure to the catholic church.
Priests, Bishops and the Archbishop.
The Priests would have been trained in England.
I'm not sure if there was a Bishop in the New World at the time of the revolution. I am sure there were a couple afterwards.
Posted by Matt Lust (Member # 3031) on :
Yeah it that when leaf gives us 1750-1850 as a scope of time that was a revolutionary time for religion in addition to this country.