America's True History of Religious Tolerance

The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record

  • By Kenneth C. Davis
  • Smithsonian magazine, October 2010, Subscribe
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Bible riots Philadelphia's Bible Riots of 1844 reflected a strain of anti-Catholic bias and hostility that coursed through 19th-century America.

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    America's True History of Religious Tolerance

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    Wading into the controversy surrounding an Islamic center planned for a site near New York City’s Ground Zero memorial this past August, President Obama declared: “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.” In doing so, he paid homage to a vision that politicians and preachers have extolled for more than two centuries—that America historically has been a place of religious tolerance. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

    But is it so?

    In the storybook version most of us learned in school, the Pilgrims came to America aboard the Mayflower in search of religious freedom in 1620. The Puritans soon followed, for the same reason. Ever since these religious dissidents arrived at their shining “city upon a hill,” as their governor John Winthrop called it, millions from around the world have done the same, coming to an America where they found a welcome melting pot in which everyone was free to practice his or her own faith.

    The problem is that this tidy narrative is an American myth. The real story of religion in America’s past is an often awkward, frequently embarrassing and occasionally bloody tale that most civics books and high-school texts either paper over or shunt to the side. And much of the recent conversation about America’s ideal of religious freedom has paid lip service to this comforting tableau.

    From the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”

    First, a little overlooked history: the initial encounter between Europeans in the future United States came with the establishment of a Huguenot (French Protestant) colony in 1564 at Fort Caroline (near modern Jacksonville, Florida). More than half a century before the Mayflower set sail, French pilgrims had come to America in search of religious freedom.

    The Spanish had other ideas. In 1565, they established a forward operating base at St. Augustine and proceeded to wipe out the Fort Caroline colony. The Spanish commander, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, wrote to the Spanish King Philip II that he had “hanged all those we had found in [Fort Caroline] because...they were scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.” When hundreds of survivors of a shipwrecked French fleet washed up on the beaches of Florida, they were put to the sword, beside a river the Spanish called Matanzas (“slaughters”). In other words, the first encounter between European Christians in America ended in a blood bath.

    The much-ballyhooed arrival of the Pilgrims and Puritans in New England in the early 1600s was indeed a response to persecution that these religious dissenters had experienced in England. But the Puritan fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did not countenance tolerance of opposing religious views. Their “city upon a hill” was a theocracy that brooked no dissent, religious or political.


    Wading into the controversy surrounding an Islamic center planned for a site near New York City’s Ground Zero memorial this past August, President Obama declared: “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.” In doing so, he paid homage to a vision that politicians and preachers have extolled for more than two centuries—that America historically has been a place of religious tolerance. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

    But is it so?

    In the storybook version most of us learned in school, the Pilgrims came to America aboard the Mayflower in search of religious freedom in 1620. The Puritans soon followed, for the same reason. Ever since these religious dissidents arrived at their shining “city upon a hill,” as their governor John Winthrop called it, millions from around the world have done the same, coming to an America where they found a welcome melting pot in which everyone was free to practice his or her own faith.

    The problem is that this tidy narrative is an American myth. The real story of religion in America’s past is an often awkward, frequently embarrassing and occasionally bloody tale that most civics books and high-school texts either paper over or shunt to the side. And much of the recent conversation about America’s ideal of religious freedom has paid lip service to this comforting tableau.

    From the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”

    First, a little overlooked history: the initial encounter between Europeans in the future United States came with the establishment of a Huguenot (French Protestant) colony in 1564 at Fort Caroline (near modern Jacksonville, Florida). More than half a century before the Mayflower set sail, French pilgrims had come to America in search of religious freedom.

    The Spanish had other ideas. In 1565, they established a forward operating base at St. Augustine and proceeded to wipe out the Fort Caroline colony. The Spanish commander, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, wrote to the Spanish King Philip II that he had “hanged all those we had found in [Fort Caroline] because...they were scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.” When hundreds of survivors of a shipwrecked French fleet washed up on the beaches of Florida, they were put to the sword, beside a river the Spanish called Matanzas (“slaughters”). In other words, the first encounter between European Christians in America ended in a blood bath.

    The much-ballyhooed arrival of the Pilgrims and Puritans in New England in the early 1600s was indeed a response to persecution that these religious dissenters had experienced in England. But the Puritan fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did not countenance tolerance of opposing religious views. Their “city upon a hill” was a theocracy that brooked no dissent, religious or political.

    The most famous dissidents within the Puritan community, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, were banished following disagreements over theology and policy. From Puritan Boston’s earliest days, Catholics (“Papists”) were anathema and were banned from the colonies, along with other non-Puritans. Four Quakers were hanged in Boston between 1659 and 1661 for persistently returning to the city to stand up for their beliefs.

    Throughout the colonial era, Anglo-American antipathy toward Catholics—especially French and Spanish Catholics—was pronounced and often reflected in the sermons of such famous clerics as Cotton Mather and in statutes that discriminated against Catholics in matters of property and voting. Anti-Catholic feelings even contributed to the revolutionary mood in America after King George III extended an olive branch to French Catholics in Canada with the Quebec Act of 1774, which recognized their religion.

    When George Washington dispatched Benedict Arnold on a mission to court French Canadians’ support for the American Revolution in 1775, he cautioned Arnold not to let their religion get in the way. “Prudence, policy and a true Christian Spirit,” Washington advised, “will lead us to look with compassion upon their errors, without insulting them.” (After Arnold betrayed the American cause, he publicly cited America’s alliance with Catholic France as one of his reasons for doing so.)

    In newly independent America, there was a crazy quilt of state laws regarding religion. In Massachusetts, only Christians were allowed to hold public office, and Catholics were allowed to do so only after renouncing papal authority. In 1777, New York State’s constitution banned Catholics from public office (and would do so until 1806). In Maryland, Catholics had full civil rights, but Jews did not. Delaware required an oath affirming belief in the Trinity. Several states, including Massachusetts and South Carolina, had official, state-supported churches.

    In 1779, as Virginia’s governor, Thomas Jefferson had drafted a bill that guaranteed legal equality for citizens of all religions—including those of no religion—in the state. It was around then that Jefferson famously wrote, “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” But Jefferson’s plan did not advance—until after Patrick (“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”) Henry introduced a bill in 1784 calling for state support for “teachers of the Christian religion.”

    Future President James Madison stepped into the breach. In a carefully argued essay titled “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” the soon-to-be father of the Constitution eloquently laid out reasons why the state had no business supporting Christian instruction. Signed by some 2,000 Virginians, Madison’s argument became a fundamental piece of American political philosophy, a ringing endorsement of the secular state that “should be as familiar to students of American history as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” as Susan Jacoby has written in Freethinkers, her excellent history of American secularism.

    Among Madison’s 15 points was his declaration that “the Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every...man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an inalienable right.”

    Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. “Who does not see,” he wrote, “that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?” Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

    As a Christian, Madison also noted that Christianity had spread in the face of persecution from worldly powers, not with their help. Christianity, he contended, “disavows a dependence on the powers of this world...for it is known that this Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.”

    Recognizing the idea of America as a refuge for the protester or rebel, Madison also argued that Henry’s proposal was “a departure from that generous policy, which offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion, promised a lustre to our country.”

    After long debate, Patrick Henry’s bill was defeated, with the opposition outnumbering supporters 12 to 1. Instead, the Virginia legislature took up Jefferson’s plan for the separation of church and state. In 1786, the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, modified somewhat from Jefferson’s original draft, became law. The act is one of three accomplishments Jefferson included on his tombstone, along with writing the Declaration and founding the University of Virginia. (He omitted his presidency of the United States.) After the bill was passed, Jefferson proudly wrote that the law “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew, the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”

    Madison wanted Jefferson’s view to become the law of the land when he went to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. And as framed in Philadelphia that year, the U.S. Constitution clearly stated in Article VI that federal elective and appointed officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution, but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

    This passage—along with the facts that the Constitution does not mention God or a deity (except for a pro forma “year of our Lord” date) and that its very first amendment forbids Congress from making laws that would infringe of the free exercise of religion—attests to the founders’ resolve that America be a secular republic. The men who fought the Revolution may have thanked Providence and attended church regularly—or not. But they also fought a war against a country in which the head of state was the head of the church. Knowing well the history of religious warfare that led to America’s settlement, they clearly understood both the dangers of that system and of sectarian conflict.

    It was the recognition of that divisive past by the founders—notably Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison—that secured America as a secular republic. As president, Washington wrote in 1790: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunity of citizenship. ...For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

    He was addressing the members of America’s oldest synagogue, the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island (where his letter is read aloud every August). In closing, he wrote specifically to the Jews a phrase that applies to Muslims as well: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

    As for Adams and Jefferson, they would disagree vehemently over policy, but on the question of religious freedom they were united. “In their seventies,” Jacoby writes, “with a friendship that had survived serious political conflicts, Adams and Jefferson could look back with satisfaction on what they both considered their greatest achievement—their role in establishing a secular government whose legislators would never be required, or permitted, to rule on the legality of theological views.”

    Late in his life, James Madison wrote a letter summarizing his views: “And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”

    While some of America’s early leaders were models of virtuous tolerance, American attitudes were slow to change. The anti-Catholicism of America’s Calvinist past found new voice in the 19th century. The belief widely held and preached by some of the most prominent ministers in America was that Catholics would, if permitted, turn America over to the pope. Anti-Catholic venom was part of the typical American school day, along with Bible readings. In Massachusetts, a convent—coincidentally near the site of the Bunker Hill Monument—was burned to the ground in 1834 by an anti-Catholic mob incited by reports that young women were being abused in the convent school. In Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, anti-Catholic sentiment, combined with the country’s anti-immigrant mood, fueled the Bible Riots of 1844, in which houses were torched, two Catholic churches were destroyed and at least 20 people were killed.

    At about the same time, Joseph Smith founded a new American religion—and soon met with the wrath of the mainstream Protestant majority. In 1832, a mob tarred and feathered him, marking the beginning of a long battle between Christian America and Smith’s Mormonism. In October 1838, after a series of conflicts over land and religious tension, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered that all Mormons be expelled from his state. Three days later, rogue militiamen massacred 17 church members, including children, at the Mormon settlement of Haun’s Mill. In 1844, a mob murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum while they were jailed in Carthage, Illinois. No one was ever convicted of the crime.

    Even as late as 1960, Catholic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy felt compelled to make a major speech declaring that his loyalty was to America, not the pope. (And as recently as the 2008 Republican primary campaign, Mormon candidate Mitt Romney felt compelled to address the suspicions still directed toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) Of course, America’s anti-Semitism was practiced institutionally as well as socially for decades. With the great threat of “godless” Communism looming in the 1950s, the country’s fear of atheism also reached new heights.

    America can still be, as Madison perceived the nation in 1785, “an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion.” But recognizing that deep religious discord has been part of America’s social DNA is a healthy and necessary step. When we acknowledge that dark past, perhaps the nation will return to that “promised...lustre” of which Madison so grandiloquently wrote.

    Kenneth C. Davis is the author of Don’t Know Much About History and A Nation Rising, among other books.


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    Comments (108)

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    IN RESPONSE TO THE PERSON WHO INVOKED THE "Treaty of Tripoli" post to refute that America was founded as a Christian nation, read the following truth that supports the fact that America WAS founded as a Christian nation: Those who attribute the Treaty of Tripoli quote to George Washington make two mistakes. The first is that no statement in it can be attributed to Washington (the treaty did not arrive in America until months after he left office); Washington never saw the treaty; it was not his work; no statement in it can be ascribed to him. The second mistake is to divorce a single clause of the treaty from the remainder which provides its context. It would also be absurd to suggest that President Adams (under whom the treaty was ratified in 1797) would have endorsed or assented to any provision which repudiated Christianity. In fact, while discussing the Barbary conflict with Jefferson, Adams declared: The policy of Christendom has made cowards of all their sailors before the standard of Mahomet. It would be heroical and glorious in us to restore courage to ours. 25 Furthermore, it was Adams who declared: The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature. 26 Adams' own words confirm that he rejected any notion that America was less than a Christian nation. Source - David Barton, Wallbuilders

    Posted by Barbara on May 5,2012 | 07:45 PM

    Excellent article. There is a minor correction about the Mormons. Gov. Boggs of Missouri issued "Missouri Executive Order 44" also known as the Mormon Extermination Order. One line says "....Mormons.....must be exterminated or driven from the state". Extermination means to kill. Gov. Boggs did not care how the Mormons were gotten rid of from his state. The Mormons were driven away but many were killed and many died on the trek to what is now Utah. It is a shame that religious intolerance is still prevalent in the United States today.

    Posted by jan on May 3,2012 | 04:26 PM

    I was very surprised when I read this article because I didnt know about this kind of religious dispute .

    Posted by Reshma Tamrakar on April 21,2012 | 05:08 PM

    One can tell how intolerant American has become by just reading the comments. In fact, American is now more intolerant than Europe. I know, I have live in both.

    Posted by A. Lochin on April 12,2012 | 07:50 PM

    Thank you, Smithsonian, for underscoring the complexities that religious beliefs by people from many origins brought to the Americas. The last decades have somehow propagated the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation and that christians came to America in order to practice their faith. I see from many comments above that history is not a strong subject matter for many and many wish to see the myth or variations on it continue. I underscore the intent of the article emphasis on knowing the facts of history (and reading original text) in order to understand the basis for the "..wall of separation.." between church and state and the the freedom it allows for both church and state.

    Posted by diane baumgart on April 9,2012 | 04:21 PM

    From the comments received it seems that a series of articles, complete with quotes and references, is needed to detail the history of religion in America, point by point, and period by period. Such would provide teachers and university professors reasonably accurate resource information on this question. We cannot hope to solve the problem of separation of church and state until those ignorant of what has been a long-term national problem have an opportunity to examine the historical information. Included in such a series would be the divergent views of the various religious groups on specific points regarding the separation of church and state. Finally, the series should include the conditions across Europe that caused our founding fathers to take their positions regarding this question.

    Posted by Charles on April 7,2012 | 02:58 PM

    Thank you Luigi and the others here who are calling this article bogus. We the People are fed up with liberal attempts at hijacking truth and liberty, such as this article sponsored by Smithsonian! Once again, the "progressive" left is attempting to distort; even erase and rewrite facts in our history. Shame on you, Smithsonian, for your pathetic, transparent contribution. Our family will terminate monetary contributions until your lens is cleaned and restored. Good day.

    Posted by Kim on April 3,2012 | 11:29 AM

    What a bunch of leftists bunk. Get over it. For crying out loud. Than anti-Americanism couldn't get more transparent. At least you could practice more originality. So, basically, we're getting more of the left's main complaint: THE UNITED STATES ISN'T PERFECT! What nation is? Let's look at the OVERALL record. I'd say Americans have demonstrated tremendous understanding and acceptance. Strange that leftists like those at the government-run Smithsonian look to europe for enlightenment--hardly a place which has ever or currently practices tolerance of any kind.

    Posted by Mario on April 3,2012 | 09:57 AM

    This article shows how true it is by the comments. Everyone gets offended by the truth, especially the Christians LoL

    Posted by John on March 30,2012 | 11:59 AM

    Et tu Smithsonian. Well, it was to be expected. After all, you are in D.C. This is an attempt by a "has been" credible institution to create anti-religious feelings. Name a single country on earth where there are so many religions and so much tolerance for all of them. You cannot, because it doesn't exist. America is where the pilgrims and puritans came to escape religious persecution in Europe. What is my source of information? Well, first, it is myself. My family came to America in the 1700's [maybe even earlier] for that reason and I have my family tree with documentation to prove it. I know others who can trace their families back that far and they also have the same history. Don't let our domestic enemies re-write history to suit their agenda. They are only interested in tearing down everything our founders built for us. Contrary to the progressive agenda, the founding fathers did an amazing job of starting a country.

    Posted by Luigi on March 21,2012 | 12:37 AM

    To: Phillip C. Smith

    I havent heard of a time where a muslim has hurt anyone or took over another's property. Ive never heard of a Muslim terrorizing someone in the states, and I urge you to read about the religion before making any comments. I live in a Muslim neighborhood and your comments are not true at all. Religion doesnt poison everything, its man who interprets religion to fit his needs.

    Posted by Kathy Mustafa on March 10,2012 | 05:06 PM

    Our founding fathers were excellent historians and realized that the enlightnements answer to the question of organized religion was Diesm (beleif soley based on reason with a supream being as only a watchmaket). While not popular,in one fale swoop they disarmed the eccelastic community. The beauty of Diesm is that it does not recognize any medium between the watchmaker and mankind (ex Jesus). This allows for true religous tolerance. Thomas Jefferson wrote "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
    Relious tollerance is the epitome of an oxymoron. Just look at the world we live in.There has never been nor will ever be any form of goverment that is based on religion (blind faith) that is successful. As a freethinker I have great respect for those who practice what they preach, just don't preach to me!

    Posted by jim on January 23,2012 | 03:15 PM

    "When contrasted with other nations of predominantly non-Christian religions the facts show that America has been far more free regarding religious choice than the article may lead the reader to believe."

    I wonder where this self-flattery comes from. East Asian countries(China, Korea, and Japan) throughout their long histories rarely experienced religious persecutions (at least, not to the degree that they occurred in Europe and the US, and when they did happen, they were more about politics than about religion per se.) The arrival of Christianity in later history changed the whole religious landscape and religions conflicts and persecutions became a prominent theme in history.

    I appreciate comments revealing historical complexities and nuances the article missed, but it seems most comments here sound so solipsistic, which I am not really surprised about.

    Posted by Beilang on December 31,2011 | 03:15 AM

    Re "religion poisons everything." If we're talking about religion and government, that's backwards--it's government that poisons. In the recent Smithsonian article about Roger Williams (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/God-Government-and-Roger-Williams-Big-Idea.html ) Williams makes the point that government, being intrinsically corrupt, must be kept away from religion. I think the current incompetence of our government to do even the basics, like creating a budget, is proof that Williams was right.

    Posted by Ken Lyon on December 29,2011 | 12:37 PM

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