Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the key concepts of “assemblage” and “religious freedom talk” and offers a brief history of religious freedom as it intersected with race and religion in colonial America—particularly through the figure of John Locke—and in the nineteenth century United States. It shows how this malleable ideal simultaneously forged the U.S. Protestant secular, bolstered U.S. imperialism, and provided colonized and minority populations with a means of resistance. In the process, religious freedom has shaped and reshaped the contours of race and religion across the cultural landscapes of U.S. empire.