1 - Reworking Reformation in the Early English Atlantic

Summary

The best-known case of early American religious migrants is that of Plymouth Plantation. Valorized in US national mythology for enduring hardship to practise freedom of religion, the story of Plymouth is a famous example of the supposed commitment to religious liberty. For the many Christian commentators who have dug deeper than the first Thanksgiving, Plymouth connects the story of the Reformation in England to the founding of the United States, telling the tale of a separatist rebellion against the Church of England that led to exile, suffering, and a Christian founding. A close consideration of Plymouth Plantation’s early history reveals that Plymouth, far from being a unique case of pious commitment struggling with and triumphing over American challenges, experienced all the difficulties involved in exporting the Reformation. Plymouth church confronted all the same challenges of staffing, membership, and religious practice of any migrant church. At the same time, their storied commitment to separatism proved weaker and less permanent than their modern champions like to assert. This case study allows for a reconsideration of the process of exporting Reformation even as it upends one of the most central myths of the American founding.