The Nineteenth Century: A Quiet Court

Abstract

Abstract Religion without governmental sanction or support: How would this actually work out in a rapidly expanding nation? No one was quite sure. Those denominations long accustomed to official help, for example, the Congregationalists in New England and the Episcopalians elsewhere, ventured onto the boisterous seas of religious liberty with some caution and fear. Other denominations, such as the Baptists and the newly organized Methodists, found the rough waters bracing and challenging. And those religious bodies that saw liberty chiefly in terms of the opportunities that it presented flourished dramatically. By 1850, for example, Methodists and Baptists together had roughly seven times the number of churches as Congregationalists and Episcopalians together. The profile of American religion was rapidly changing. The key word to describe this “new look” among the churches was voluntarism. A whole host of voluntary societies arose early in the nineteenth century to meet needs that government would not or could not serve: the American Bible Society (founded 1816), which made inexpensive copies of the Bible widely available on the frontier and elsewhere; the American Sunday School Union (1824), which encouraged the establishment of Sunday schools, often led by women, even where no churches were found; the American Tract Society (1825), which printed moral and religious literature in small pamphlets that sold for a dime, a nickel, or even a penny.