This year marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, and with it, we can expect to hear a great deal about the causes and values of those who overthrew their King and Mother Country. At St. Luke’s, we are marking this occasion by exploring the influences behind the patriot cause through our annual Summer Series. The first session, titled “Revolutionary Puritans,” will take place on June 4th at noon.
When we think of Puritans we usually think of a dour people who delighted only in punishing themselves and one another, but, this is a conception largely framed by ignorance and prejudice. It also may surprise you that Puritanism was chosen as an influence on Revolutionaries given that most historians dub the 1740’s as the end of or transformation of the Puritan movement. I don’t rebut that suggestion, but the lingering effects of what we may call the Puritan ethic were certainly alive and well in the 1770s and continue in some circles today. By ‘Puritan ethic,’ I mean the connection between the concept of liberty and that of virtue.
To many Americans on the eve of that ‘shot heard round the world,’ England had come to represent a den of iniquity. They believed that the government had a divine calling to serve the people, not to advance its own self-interest. New Englanders in particular observed the rise of English commissioners who grew wealthy off the backs of common people and saw an economic system increasingly reliant on the sale of unnecessary luxuries that encouraged sloth and idleness. These items were referred to as baubles, and those with a Puritan ethic saw them as a symptom of the decline of virtue throughout the British Empire. Even Deists like Franklin and Jefferson espoused the virtues of industry and enterprise for the common good.
The British also saw a connection between the ideals of the Revolution and that earlier age of Puritanism, often referring to the Patriot cause as “Old Oliver’s Cause”. This refers to Oliver Cromwell, suggesting that the Revolution was a renewal of the English Civil Wars and the anti-monarchical bent of the Roundheads. Puritanism may have evolved into the new theological movements of the so-called ‘Awakenings,’ but much of the Puritan worldview was still present at the time of our Nation’s founding.
We hope you will join us for our Summer Series, which will also explore such diverse influences as the Enlightenment Thinkers and from Awakening to Secularism. These sessions are free with registration.
Please visit our website at: https://stlukesmuseum.org/events/summer-series-part-i-revolutionary-puritans/. Snacks and drinks will be provided!
Above: A Political Cartoon showing the corruption of English Commerce.
Above: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin c. 1767
Above: Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac often contained sayings from the Puritan Ethic such as “Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings,” and “lost time is never found again.”
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About the Author
John Ericson is the Executive Director and Site Historian for St. Luke’s Historic Church & Museum. John holds a degree in History from Roanoke College and a Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. In addition to John’s role at St. Luke’s, he is the Pastor of Reformation Lutheran Church in Newport News, Virginia. John is married to Oneita Jamerson Ericson, a native of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. They have three sons, Matthew, Thomas, and James, as well as two granddaughters, Carys and Lennon. The Ericsons currently reside in Hampton, Virginia. John has been teaching Reformation History and the Early American Religious Experience for more than thirty years.