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The Southern Dissenting Clergy And The American Revolution, Cline Edwin Hall

Faculty Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of the southern dissenting clergy in the American Revolution. Rapidly growing in numbers in the quarter century before the Revolution, these men began to take places of leadership in which they could actively influence their communities. Even though their sermons were important sources of whig ideology, the clergy had a natural tendency to steer away from political involvement. This reluctance, along with their location outside the political and religious establishment in the South, forced them into a position of moderation rather than militant leadership regarding the issues leading to the …