The Evangelical fight for religious liberty in revolutionary Virginia

This paper argues that to achieve full religious liberty and a strict church-state separation as represented in the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (AERF) of 1786, Evangelicals in Revolutionary Virginia capitalised on the sentiments of anti-establishment politicians, the newfound freedom afforded to them in the nascent state’s Declaration of Rights (DOR), their strategically-worded petitions, and the waning influence of and growing fissures within the established Church of England (COE). Colonial Virginia’s demography vastly transformed during the Great Awakening as there was a substantial influx of Evangelicals who then dissented against the COE. The American Revolution (AR) provided them with a monumental opportunity to end preferential treatments for the COE and gain greater religious freedom. The DOR and underlying discord within the COE provided further impetus for the Evangelicals’ cause. Evangelicals would further pressurize the legislature and COE through petitions and newspaper articles, thwarting their opponents in their veiled attempts to regain control. When the Revolutionary War’s epicentre shifted to the South, the COE lost further ground to the Evangelicals. With the further weakening of the COE and AR’s conclusion, the path was clear for the Evangelicals’ political allies to pass the AERF on 16 January 1786.Bachelor of Arts in Histor