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Christian History, Spring 1996
TIMELINE: American Revolution
By Robert M. Calhoon
First Hints
1740s & 1750s
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CHRISTIANITY
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THE REVOLUTION
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1740s Great Awakening inspired by George Whitefield's preaching spreads through colonies
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1740-1748 King George's War—French and British maneuver to dominate North America
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1747 Jonathan Edwards's The Visible Union of God's People envisions Americans bound together by shared conversion experience
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1760 George III becomes king of England
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1750 Jonathan Mayhew's Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance announces Christian duty to resist tyranny
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1756-1763 Seven Years' War—British expel French from North America
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Prelude
1760s
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CHRISTIANITY
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THE REVOLUTION
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1768-1769 Northern Anglicans demand appointment of a colonial bishop
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1763 Peace of Paris ends Seven Years' War; British government in financial straits
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1768 John Witherspoon becomes president of the College of New Jersey; unites Presbyterians and introduces Scottish Common Sense philosophy
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1764 Sugar Act—Britain tightens enforcement of the acts of trade, seeking more revenues from colonies
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1765 Stamp Act—Americans complain of taxation without representation
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1767 Townshend Acts—attempts to indirectly tax the colonies
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Turning Point
1770-1776
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CHRISTIANITY
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THE REVOLUTION
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1772 Boston Committee of Correspondence indicts British policies, including prospect of a colonial Anglican bishop; John Allen preaches on The Beauties of Liberty
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1770 Boston Massacre—five protesting Bostonians killed
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1774 May Quebec Act condemned as extending "Papist Rule"; Sept. Baptist Isaac Backus demands that First Continental Congress, meeting in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, protect Baptists' religious liberty
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1773 Boston Tea Party protests Tea Act of 1773
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1775 July Continental Congress calls for day of prayer and fasting; preachers debate whether to submit to British authority
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1774 Intolerable Acts: including quartering of troops in homes; First Continental Congress meets
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1776 July Declaration of Independence invokes "the laws of nature and of nature's God"; Sept. New Jersey Dutch Reformed split on political lines; Dec. North Carolina constitution restricts officeholding to Protestants; Dec. Virginia disestablishes the Anglican church
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1775 Apr. Battles of Lexington and Concord force a British retreat; May Second Continental Congress seeks repeal of British policies; creates Continental Army and names George Washington commander; June Battle of Bunker Hill
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1776 Jan. Thomas Paine's Common Sense ignites feelings for independence; July Thomas Jefferson pens Declaration of Independence; Dec. Washington crosses Delaware and defeats British at Trenton
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War & Aftermath
1777-1789
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CHRISTIANITY
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THE REVOLUTION
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1777 Aug. Pennsylvania officials deport 40-plus Quakers for "disloyalty;" Nov. Lutheran patriarch Henry Muhlenburg defends his neutrality
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1777 Battle of Saratoga: American victory prompts France to support United States
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1778-1780 Henry Alline, "Nova Scotia's Whitefield," ignites a Canadian revival that spreads to New England
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1777-1778 Washington's army suffers through winter at Valley Forge
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1778 South Carolina permits Anglican-like churches that meet certain criteria
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1778 June Battle of Monmouth: longest action of the war a draw
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1779 Virginia considers public subsidies for churches
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1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, forcing peace negotiations
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1780 Massachusetts decides to continue public funding of Congregational churches
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1783 Treaty of Paris—British recognize American independence
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1781 Presbyterian Samuel McCorkle preaches against looting and abusing of loyalists
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1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention
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1786 Virginia adopts Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Liberty
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1789 Bill of Rights guarantees religious freedom
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1788 Presbyterians establish a national denomination
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1789 George Washington takes presidential oath on the Bible, adding "So help me, God."
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Robert Calhoon is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is author of "Dominion and Liberty: Ideology in the Anglo-American World" (1994).
Copyright © 1996 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
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Issue 50, May 1996, Vol. XV, No. 2, Page 26
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