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Nuance is always key. In understanding how any system works, one needs to understand the little ins and outs of it that make it the way it is. In class the other day, we touched on the topic of the development of a racialized slavery. In our discussion as a class, we were very careful to include as many factors as we could in our analysis of how race relations in the colonies evolved. This approach is one that Taylor employs in his re-writing of history, and is one I believe is critical to an accurate understanding of history.
In chapter 15, Taylor is very deliberate in his nuanced delivery of how religion developed in The New World. On page 339 he denounces the dominant narrative, which he believes, “…grossly simplifies the diverse religious motive for emigration.” We have heard the story, so plainly told, that dissenters of the Church of England fled religious persecution. This narrative leaves us to assume that all those who left England for religious reasons were under one religious denomination. This could not be further from the truth, According to Taylor, there were multiple denominations, including the Anglicans, Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, and German Reformed. Even more important to understand was the competition between these groups. Each group wanted their belief to be the dominant one. This lead to a climate, as Taylor notes, that was not as religiously tolerant as we assume when we think of the New World, especially in New England.
Taylor’s narrative also shows an extremely important discrepancy in the two schools of thought that influenced the above mentioned groups. He pays special attention to the rift between those who were rationalists, and those who took the evangelical route. This is especially important because it holds implications outside of religion. Taylor asserts, “By emphasizing the overwhelming…power of God acting directly and indiscriminately upon souls, radical evangelicals weakened the social conventions of their hierarchical society.” Undoubtedly, religion affected other parts of colonial society, such as economics, and class structure. So if we do not understand the nuances of religion in the colonies, we cannot even get to the point where we realize that different denominations affect social structure in unique ways.