Just reservation about timing - aren't the notable instances of persecution
of baptists, for example, ca 1773 ?
Within a two years though we see petitions from baptists and other
dissenters treated with sympathy by many in Va assembly, and after the war
starts, evangelical recruits were needed for the army etc......
Madison in 1780s of course recruited dissenters to support passage of the
statute for religious freedom -- Jefferson was in France, had written the
statute during 1776-9 revision of the laws program -- but my sense is that
active persecution was earlier......   so  just quibbling about timing.
Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>


On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 11:18 AM, <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Jon, in your response to Paul Finkelman, you say "not sure I  would
> characterize *1780s* as a period of  'vicious persecution' of any
>  denomination in
> VA."   Does your uncertainty have to do with your  sense of the degree of
> the persecution that does seem to have  existed?   More than one religious
> historian has maintained that it  was the treatment of Baptists and others
> by
> both government authorities and  general population that helped produce our
> national position on religious  tolerance and freedom.  Similarly, Thomas
> Jefferson's concept of separation  of church and state seems to have been
> influenced by his perception of ill  treatment of such folk as the
> Baptists.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
> In a message dated 11/9/2010 9:05:49 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> When  described in detail, the oaths taken by 18th-c VA officeholders  were
> typically described as "the Oaths appointed to be taken by Act  of
> Parliament* followed by a statement about "repeat[ing] and subscrib[ing  --
> i.e., signing] the Test"**
>
> {Language quoted from William Nelson's  assumption of governorship in
> October
> 1770 in Van Horne ed Nelson  Correspondence 37-38n}
>
> *Act I George I stat 2 cap XIII - oath of  allegiance to George I and
> succession of his Protestant heirs
> ** The  Test was a repudiation of transubstantion required by the Test Act
> of
> 1673
>
> At the beginning of a general assembly session and when new  burgesses
> entered the Assembly from by-elections, the journals refer more  succinctly
> to the oaths....
>
> George Washington signed a Test Act Oath  about May 22, 1754 - the document
> is extant, or at least preserved by  published photographs......
>
> And in 1777 VA adopted its own (secular)  Test Act requiring "free male
> inhabitants of this state above a certain age  to give assurance of
> allegiance to the same [i.e. to the  commonwealth]."  - Hening Statutes 9:
> 281-83.
>
> PS to original  query : not sure I would characterize *1780s* as a period
> of
> " vicious  persecution" of any denomination in VA
>
> Jon  Kukla
> ________________
> www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>  <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 10:28 AM,  Henry Wiencek
> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
> > According to  the "Industrial and historical sketch of Fairfax County,
> > Virginia,"  (1907), in colonial times all county officials were
> > required to take  the "Test Oath" denying belief in the
> > Transubstantiation of the  Eucharist, a clause no Roman Catholic could
> > swear to.
> >
> >  Henry Wiencek
> >
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