What's the First?!

The History of Religious Freedom in the United States is often portrayed as a neat one, but as Kenneth C. Davis writes in his article for Smithsonian Magazine, “this tidy narrative is an American myth.” The reality was bloody, violent, and oppressive, and because of this, it is frequently skimmed over in history books. Learning and embracing the truth of history helps to show how important Religious Freedom is going forward not only as a nation but as a human population across the globe.

The Pilgrims did arrive on the Mayflower seeking religious freedom, but they were not the start of the religious conflict in the Americas.

The French actually arrived first, establishing a French Protestant colony during the late 1500s at Fort Caroline, in Florida. The Spanish, who were Catholic, slaughtered the french colonists. During this time, The Spanish also slaughtered native peoples in Central, South, and North America and forced the conversion of those not massacred.

The Pilgrims and the Puritans then arrived in the early 1600s, seeking religious freedom. But, contrary to common belief, these colonists sought religious freedom for their religion only. The Puritans had no religious tolerance for other Christians or for any other religion at all, with their Massachusetts Bay colony being an intolerant theocracy that banished anyone who disagreed with their religious beliefs.

One such dissident was Roger Williams, who, after being kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, founded Rhode Island. Rhode Island became the first colony to grant religious freedom to everyone.

Anti-catholic sentiment grew throughout the colonies, to the point where it can be counted as a contribution to the Revolution, as the Quebec Act of 1774 recognized French Catholics in Canada, infuriating some colonists.

After Revolution, many of the states had laws in their constitutions that were religiously biased. For example, in Massachusetts, only Christians and some Catholics were allowed to hold public office, and Delaware required an oath of belief in the Trinity.

As governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill in 1779 that would legally guarantee that citizens of all religions, including those not practicing religion, would be treated equally. Sadly, the bill did not pass.

James Madison, the future father of the Constitution and future writer of the Bill of Rights, advocated against the religious education proposed by Patrick Henry by writing his “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” in which he said:

“The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men:”

Madison explains that the government can not advocate the teaching of one religion over others because religion is special to every person and to teach one religion would be violating an unalienable right.

Due to Madison’s essay, Patrick Henry’s idea was overturned and they returned to Jefferson’s bill. In 1786, they passed the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom into law, which protected all religions.

When Madison went to the Constitutional Convention, he took Jefferson’s secular ideals with him. In the Constitution, there is no mention of God and the only mention of religion is to say that no federal official will ever have to undergo a religious test to get the position.

Madison then wrote the Bill of Rights, the first of which is the First Amendment, which starts by defending religious freedom.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were not the only founding fathers who advocated for religious freedom and governmental secularism; George Washington was also a major advocate. In a 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue, he wrote:

“For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

He ended his letter with: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

The Freedom of Religion was further protected by the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, 77 years after the First Amendment was first established. The Fourteenth Amendment prevents states from passing laws that would favor or oppress any one religion.

That completes the historical lead-up to the First Amendment’s protection of religions, but sadly that is not where the history lesson will end. The next page discusses the many times where the First Amendment was violated and the intolerance that plagued and plagues our nation.

History of Freedom of Religion

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

History of Freedom of Religion

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

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