How did Massachusettes go from Puritan colonists to having an Episcopalian elite?
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  How did Massachusettes go from Puritan colonists to having an Episcopalian elite?
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Author Topic: How did Massachusettes go from Puritan colonists to having an Episcopalian elite?  (Read 1526 times)
darklordoftech
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« on: September 29, 2021, 03:06:08 AM »

The Puritan Church was (and I believe still is) a “low church”, so did Massachusettes end up with an Episcopalian elite?
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« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2021, 05:36:40 AM »

The shift of New England WASPs, especially among elites, from Puritanism (later Congregationalism) to Episcopalianism is something I've wondered about as well. A key factor certainly has to be the decline of orthodox Calvinist and Trinitarian Congregationalism in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries in favour of Unitarianism especially in urban areas and educational institutions. I suspect the American upper class adopting a lot of the cultural practices of the European, especially English upper class in the Gilded Age played a role as well. I'm reading WASPs by Michael Beran and he points out how Episcopalian ritualism drew many converts among Boston Brahmins in the late 19th Century.
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« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2021, 01:55:09 PM »

Likely a combination of generational changes (similar to how The South went from being part of The New Deal constituency to the conservative stronghold it is today), as well as a shift from social conservatism to a more social gospel type of Christianity during the 19th century, revolving around the abolition of slavery.
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Buffalo Mayor Young Kim
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« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2021, 12:29:34 AM »

Wait did they shift to Episcopalians? I thought that the New England elite were UCC (modern Congregationalists) and Episcopalians were more Mid-Atlantic.
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Aurelius
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« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2022, 02:25:33 AM »

It was a long, complicated process that took place in lots of small steps, which I don't fully understand. But some historians consider the Salem witch trials to be the rock upon which the Puritan theocracy was broken. In the aftermath of the madness, in a colony whose leaders genuinely believed in witchcraft, people began seriously and publicly questioning the established religious order in a way that hadn't happened before.
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beaver2.0
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« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2022, 11:28:03 AM »

I've also wondered this for many years.  My understanding is that early on it was Puritans but by 1800 it was a mixture of Episcopalians and Congregationalists (some of them being Unitarians)  The shift to Congregationalism I can understand, but I've never been able to find exactly how so many became Episcopalians.
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2022, 01:29:38 AM »

I've also wondered this for many years.  My understanding is that early on it was Puritans but by 1800 it was a mixture of Episcopalians and Congregationalists (some of them being Unitarians)  The shift to Congregationalism I can understand, but I've never been able to find exactly how so many became Episcopalians.

Could wealth be a factor?
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #7 on: January 12, 2022, 10:35:46 AM »

A few idle thoughts, strung loosely together:

1. The 'Puritan' label was a pretty loose one that applied to a significant element still within the Church of England and not only to Independents (Congregationalists in later parlance), Presbyterians and smaller radical groups. The traditional Low Church element in Anglicanism (which still exists) is a direct descendant. I'm more familiar with what happened in England after the end of the Commonwealth than with the new society built in the New England, but I would presume that a similar unwinding occurred, though presumably at a much slower pace.

2. Emigration from England to New England did not cease in the mid 17th century and the vast majority of immigrants will have been Anglican of one shade or another.

3. I don't believe that the historical WASP elite in New England was ever as thoroughly Episcopalian as in other states anyway? There was always a residual element in the older churches directly descended from the Independent tendency in Puritanism and then, of course, there was the famous interest in Unitarianism, which was very much an elite phenomenon.

4. This is a combination of 2) and 3) really: in cases of mixed marriages (which will have been more common in the 19th, especially later 19th, century than earlier), it would be the norm for all of the children to be raised in only one of the two parental denominations. Weight of numbers would tend to mean that a smaller group would thus become proportionately smaller.
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beaver2.0
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« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2022, 01:05:43 PM »

I've also wondered this for many years.  My understanding is that early on it was Puritans but by 1800 it was a mixture of Episcopalians and Congregationalists (some of them being Unitarians)  The shift to Congregationalism I can understand, but I've never been able to find exactly how so many became Episcopalians.

Could wealth be a factor?
Perhaps, though my understanding is that there were many wealthy Congregationalists.

I understand the Puritan -> Congregationalist pipeline.  I thought Puritans had a fairly decentralized polity so I can see how a couple generations of liberal theology would lead to Congregationalism.  A movement from Puritanism to Episcopalianism is harder to envision.
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progressive85
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« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2022, 04:28:37 AM »

Likely a combination of generational changes (similar to how The South went from being part of The New Deal constituency to the conservative stronghold it is today), as well as a shift from social conservatism to a more social gospel type of Christianity during the 19th century, revolving around the abolition of slavery.

This.  Massachusetts was very religious - it just was advocating from the pews a totally different style than in the 1600s and 1700s - the 1800s was a transformative century for the U.S. (and the world) and with each passing decade, MA's religious establishment grew more and more tethered to the idea of using God's word to promote social justice and fight social injustices, like slavery.  I'm sure many in the MA suffrage movement were connected with local churches.
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Paul Weller
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« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2022, 05:19:35 PM »

Likely a combination of generational changes (similar to how The South went from being part of The New Deal constituency to the conservative stronghold it is today), as well as a shift from social conservatism to a more social gospel type of Christianity during the 19th century, revolving around the abolition of slavery.

Anglicanism is historically way more conservative than Puritanism.
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RINO Tom
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« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2022, 10:44:30 PM »

I mean, without any expertise to offer, radical/reactionary/non-mainstream/whatever belief systems that make people into zealots are not good for society in the long run.  They can provide a fervor for a colonist generation or they can ignite a spark of revolution, but they're unstable and dangerous as far as stability and long term prosperity are concerned.  I would imagine that as the Colonies grew and more of a complex/industrial economic infrastructure became tied to their well-being, it was easier to convince more and more people to chill out a bit ... first of all, economic elites (who would be doing the convincing anyway, here).
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« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2022, 09:24:07 PM »

There are entire books about this subject, starting with the shift from "Puritan" Congregationalism to Unitarianism c. 1815. My general impression, though, is that Episcopalianism, at least as a political consciousness, was a reaction to the liberal excesses of the Unitarians (and Transcendentalists) c. 1850.
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Aurelius
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« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2022, 11:06:05 PM »

There are entire books about this subject, starting with the shift from "Puritan" Congregationalism to Unitarianism c. 1815. My general impression, though, is that Episcopalianism, at least as a political consciousness, was a reaction to the liberal excesses of the Unitarians (and Transcendentalists) c. 1850.
Do you recommend any of those books in particular?
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« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2022, 11:42:48 AM »

There are entire books about this subject, starting with the shift from "Puritan" Congregationalism to Unitarianism c. 1815. My general impression, though, is that Episcopalianism, at least as a political consciousness, was a reaction to the liberal excesses of the Unitarians (and Transcendentalists) c. 1850.
Do you recommend any of those books in particular?

Here is a good collection of primary sources on the Unitarian controversy: https://archive.org/details/unitariancontrov0001unse/

Most of what I know about this has come from articles or works on the period generally rather than one single source dedicated to religious changes; there are few good treatments of the topic.
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Badger
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« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2022, 11:45:29 AM »

Wait did they shift to Episcopalians? I thought that the New England elite were UCC (modern Congregationalists) and Episcopalians were more Mid-Atlantic.

 We UCC types actually have a is a significant presence here in the Midwest is best based on various German immigrant reform reform congregations which eventually merged and then remerged into the ucc.

 The pescopilians have a presence out here, but I've always had the image of them being  Is particularly strong in New England/New York State
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« Reply #16 on: June 21, 2022, 02:35:31 PM »

Likely a combination of generational changes (similar to how The South went from being part of The New Deal constituency to the conservative stronghold it is today), as well as a shift from social conservatism to a more social gospel type of Christianity during the 19th century, revolving around the abolition of slavery.

Anglicanism is historically way more conservative than Puritanism.

I was just about to say this (PR linked me to this thread, hence the necro). Even today the UCC, the successor denomination of New England Puritanism, is even more liberal than the Episcopal Church. Certainly no abolitionist in 185whatever would have converted from a Nonconformist-derived denomination to Anglicanism.
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