Journal of Student Research 2023

Black Robes: God’s Patriots that Prepared America for Independence

75

Conclusion Locke, Montesquieu, and English heritage all had an undoubtedly important influence upon American political leaders. However, the average lay person in the colonies was much more likely to have heard or read a sermon by a clergyman such as Whitefield, Mayhew, or Wise, than to thumb through Lockian pamphlets. Affirmation of the role that the clergy played in preparing America for independence cannot be overstated. Alexis De Tocqueville, a French official visiting America to observe the criminal justice system, would write in the 1830’s on the connection between politics and religion: The religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country. 34 Here, De Tocqueville simply and elegantly expresses the prescient influence of the clergy upon the life and culture of early America; this influence has been shown to trace back to the influence of these three among other gospel ministers in colonial America. The long-time legacy of colonial clergy is well evidenced and affirmed. God’s ministers led through their indirect influence in the political arena. This impact on the course of the American Revolution is a unique facet of American history and one which should be studied for an understanding of those men who were sources of America’s independence. In conclusion, God’s ministers, as they preached to their congregations, sowed the seeds of independence. God’s patriots truly did prepare an American colonial society to fight in 1775 against the overreach of the British government.

34 Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: J. & H. G. Langley, 1835), [Ch. 17, Para 3 Gutenberg online] or (Pg. 394 in physical].