When religion was forced on Americans

BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLU-tion, many colonies had established churches supported with tax dollars or imposed religious restrictions on voting or holding office. There was no separation of church and state. In Virginia, the most populous colony, everyone paid a tax to support the Anglican Church, which controlled marriage, poor relief, and care of orphans, and enforced laws regarding profanity and church attendance. If religious dissenters died leaving young children, Anglican officials would often place them in an Anglican home. Dissenters who failed to attend Anglican services regularly were often fined.

- BY JOHN A. RAGOSTA

Even so, religious dissent grew, led by evangelical Presbyterians and Baptists. So establishment supporters chased ministers with dogs, threw rocks, and occasionally fired shots. Men on horseback whipped gathered worshippers. A hornet’s nest was thrown into one prayer meeting. By the time of the Revolution, over half the Baptist ministers in Virginia suffered jail time on charges of disturbing the peace or preaching without a license. (Many countered that their license came from “King Jesus.”)

But with dissenters accounting for as much as one-third of Virginia’s population, patriot leaders realized that their support was desperately needed in the fight against Britain. Dissenters demanded religious freedom as their price for supporting the war, and many religious restrictions were removed.