I watched an excellent PBS documentary tonight on religious freedom in America. It hit all the main points, or ? This short essay is a critique of that fine program, but I am using speculation, and possibly bad memory. But I think it did miss a very important point.
The film mentions that when some English Quakers arrived in New Amsterdam/s Flushing section, locals stood up to defend the strange religion, signing a petition on their behalf. But the film omits how the Puritans of New England, expressing their religion, a fundamentalist Christianity, when the first Western baby was born in the new colony, they checked the date when the couple married aboard the ship, and discovered the baby emerged too soon. The couple must have fornicated before marriage. To celebrate the first babe born, they had the parents whipped! Later they executed the many witches that seemed to have come to the colony. They kicked out Baptist leader Roger Williams and sent him packing to Rhode Island, and when Quakers came to preach, they too were executed. The Puritans had free expression, but that did not extend to others in their colony.
But I am more interested in another period not covered by the documentary - 1803-1812. The Justinian Code, which was the source of much of the groundwork for law in Europe, assumed most people would be Christians. There were discriminatory provisions for Jews and pagans. When Martin Luther stood his ground, and was not executed for his new heresy, the Roman Catholic Church now had a major challenge to its dominance in much of Europe. Germany soon had to endure the 30 Years War, in which Catholic monarchs warred against various Protestant leaders. While Swiss Cantons were more tolerant, still you could not express open defiance of the ruler's chosen religion. A similar solution in divided Germany. Henry VIII made himself the leader of a revised church in England, the Anglican. Attempts to expand Protestism in France culminated in a massacre of Huguenots. Bottom line - Catholics and Protestants tended to kill each other.
The English colonies in North America were being populated by various Protestant sects; the government happy to see a larger population in the colonies, and probably also happy that some of these dissidents left Britain. There was one colony, Maryland, founded for Catholics who had been persecuted in England, but in 40 years, Protestants composed a large majority and introduced some discrimination against Roman Catholics. Virginia and all the southern colonies had the Anglican as the established church, and other British colonies in America had other dominant Protestant denominations.
During the 7 Years War (French and Indian War), France and Britain battled against each other in India, North America including Canada, and elsewhere. With defeat France lost Acadia (Nova Scotia), and the inhabitants expelled, with some making it to Louisiana to become Cajuns. France also lost the area around Pittsburgh, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Ouisconsin. Not that many French had settled. there; and it would take some time for the Brits to do so.
1789 Bastille Day. A revolution far more radical than ours. A time of great invention, hot-air balloons,
a humane device to execute by Dr. Guiuetine, the abolition of the Christian calendar, the Year I of the Revolution, and it was decimal, with a 10-day week. The Jacabins in parliament vote to end slavery in Haiti, and the party leader, Robespierre, dressed in a toga, turns Notre Dame into a temple to the goddess of wisdom. However, Robespierre is soon guitined himself, and a young military man, Napoleon comes to power. He will restore the French Empire in the New World.
Unfortunately for Napoleon, when the Jacobins lost power and failed to free the slaves of Haiti, the slaves decided to free themselves. Slave rebellion. Napoleon who had won many battles in Europe, and would soon be in Moscow, he did not count on the slaves being formidable. True, slave revolts almost never succeed, but the Haitians defeated the French troops sent by Napoleon. Yellow fever may have contributed to the French losses.
France still held from New Orleans up to Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and to some, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. And a slew of states going down to Arkansas. America, the new nation, sought to purchase New Orleans only, as who controlled that city on both sides of the Mississippi, would determine the trade. Before rail, water was the cheapest way to ship goods. But with the failure of French efforts in the 7 Years War France gave Louisiana to Spain, an ally, and it would keep it from British hands. During his exploits, Napoleon put his brother on the Spanish throne, so no big deal. When Jefferson sought to buy New Orleans, his team was surprised to buy all of Louisiana. The French then took over Louisiana for a short time, and transferred it to the USA. As part of the deal, Jefferson pledged to treat the dominant Catholic population of Louisiana as equal citizens.
In all the huge Louisiana territory, there was not one legal Protestant church! Normally, Catholics and Protestants killed each other. This would be an interesting experiment. Can RC's and Prot's live together as equal and in peace. The treaty was signed in 1803. Louisiana became a state in 1812. By 1840. New Orleans was the 3rd largest city in the US (a wiki article on La history, but I think it exaggerates). Most of the population of New Orleans was RC. Indeed, the new territory did not even absorb English Common Law, but used the French Revolution's improved revisions of Justinian's, now called the Napoleonic Code. The church I attended was originally Presbyterian, but the minister was found guilty of heresy. He made it a Unitarian Church, the 2nd Protestant church in NO, and possibly in Louisiana. Money problems, but financial help came from a merchant in NO, Judah Touro, who helped with the Touro Synagogue in NO, and one in Rhode Island. Unlike most of the South, there was a sizable FPC population, Free People of Color. The program spoke of the growth of Catholic Schools, but I am sure they already existed in New Orleans, and some for the FPCs. When the Irish famine caused many to flee the land and come to America, quite a few came to NO. It may not have been ideal, for St. Louis Cathedral is still one of the symbols of Jackson Square in the French Quarter. But about 20 blocks away, it what was then called the American Quarer, stands St. Patrick's Cathedral.
I do not mean that there was no friction between Catholics and Protestants or Jews. But it was subdued. The only horror on the religious front, but probably had nothing to do with religious differences, occurred in the 1890s, when 11 men were lynched in one swoop. They were not black; they were Italians, and apparently members of the Black Hand, which seems to have been an early version of the Mafia. The new united nation of Italy protested this to Washington, DC, and Washington told NO, stop lynching Italians.
My point, normally RC and Prots have long histories in many countries of killing each other. I think the religious experiment in Louisiana worked quite well. This was written quickly, and there may be some errors, but I think it overall accurate. HUGH MURRAY
THE GREAT EXPERIMENT IN AMERICA, AND ONE THAT WORKED WELL
I may be wrong, if so tell me. Going back to the Justinian Code, Christianity was given special privileges. Pagans and Jews were recognized, but restricted in their worship and in their rights. They were clearly 2nd class citizens. And the Christian Church was not a cacophany of voices, it was one true church, with doctrines approved with the Nicaean Creed. In time, there would be 2 centers, Rome in the west, and Constantinople in the East. Heresy was worse than the false religions, and heretics were punished. This, with variations became the basic law on religion in the West from the 6th century until the French Revolution. The revision of Justinian's Code gave citizens the right to be Protestants, Jews, and possibly other faiths. When Napoleon took Louisiana from Spain, the new law went to Louisiana as the Napoleonic Code. (It also followed Napoleon's armies through Europe, so Jews could leave the ghettos in Germany, and dissidents might practice a faith other than the local duke's or rulers'.
Jefferson, a Christian perhaps for reasons of being a politician, but sometimes a Deist, and generally a strong believer of separation of church and state. He bought Louisiana, a vast territory without a single, legal Protestant church. The capital, New Orleans was Catholic, overwhelmingly so. But Jefferson pledged to treat the Catholics with the rights of all American citizens so they could openly practice their religion. All the other states and territories of the US were Protestant, overwhelmingly so. Ever since Luther succeeded in breaking the unity of the Roman Church in the West, when RCs and Prots both sought to openly practice their faiths, there would be hostility, murders, and wars. Everyone knew, the two versions of Christianity could NOT live in peace. Wars and massacres had followed the Reformation. Did Jefferson make a mistake in buying a territory that could not be absorbed into Protestant America???
Soon there were at least 2 Protestant churches in Catholic New Orleans, and Touro Synagogue. A port city, many sailors who came were not necessarily looking for churches; the French Quarter has been around a long time. Many of the American farmers who came down the Mississippi with their goods to sell, surely Protestants, unloaded in New Orleans, where some goods would might be shipped abroad, or to the east coasst of the US. As far as I know, there were no religious riots. In 1812 Louisiana was admitted to the union just like any other state, even though it did not have English Common Law, but the Napoleonic Code as basis for law. There were Catholic schools, and some FPCs were educared the same as whites. Aside from bouts of Yellow Fever, the city grew and thrived. The WORLD LEARNED THAT ROMAN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS AND OTHERS COULD LIVE IN PEACE AS CITIZENS WITH THE SAME BASIC RIGHTS. I do not believe this had occurred before the Louisiana experiment. I know nothing of Canadian history, and it is possible, when Britain conquered Canada, it allowed religious freedom there too. But the British cruel expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, makes me suspect it may not have gone so smoothly in Canada. If Canada ran the same experiment in religious freedom for RCs and Prots, it would have been about the same time as the Louisiana experiment. We know it worked in Louisiana. And not just minority Prots and Jews, we had vodoo too. One more innovation of freedom in the New World.
