About Religion in North Carolina in the Colonial Times

The colony of North Carolina was established with an Anglican religion by order of the royal charter. Because of the rugged terrain and the way it made communication and travel difficult, the colonists had trouble facilitating the growth of an organized system of churches. This vacuum gave rise to the predominant portrait of religious belief in colonial North Carolina: the rise of the Dissenters.

History

Twenty-two mission stations were established in North Carolina between 1708 and 1783 by the Church of England. This was an attempt to establish a strong Anglican presence throughout the colony. The mission stations were never popularly accepted by the colonists, however, because resentment grew strong against supporting the presence of the Anglican church through taxation.

Significance

The single most significant event to take place during the colonial period in North Carolina in relation to religious beliefs took place at the end of that era, and just before statehood was conferred upon the passage of the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, the church was finally and officially disbanded at the constitutional convention. The disbanding of the Anglican presence was in reality a mere formality, however, because by the time of the Revolutionary War, the ties between the Church of England and British rule were seen as untenable.

Effects

The inability of the Church of England to establish a strong presence in North Carolina allowed for the growth of dissenting denominations. By 1730, these sects were spreading across the expanse of the colony and insinuating themselves into small-town life at a rapid pace. Nearly every major dissenting denomination was able to carve out a place of strength somewhere in North Carolina at this point, including Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians.

Quakers

One sizable dissenting sect that landed a stronghold in North Carolina during the 1670s appeared poised to become as vital and essential a force in the colony as they had become in Pennsylvania. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, had established a very powerful presence in the colony by the late 1670s (especially in the Piedmont area), due mainly to their ability to organize in a way that had failed the Anglican Church. The Quakers might still be as prevalent in North Carolina as they have been in Pennsylvania, but their pacifist agenda made them unpopular as revolutionary fervor took hold.

Presbyterians

In the earliest days of North Carolina's existence, Presbyterians made up a small minority. All of that changed beginning around 1730, when newly arrived immigrants from Scotland and Scotch-Irish immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania began pouring into the colony. Presbyterians filled the gap that was created by the reluctance to embrace Quaker pacifism during the revolutionary period; during this era, presbyteries began to flourish in both the northern and southern parts of the colony.

Baptists

The Baptists arrived in North Carolina in the 1680s, but would not be officially organized until the 1720s. In fact, many different congregations would be established, and though the total number of Baptists would number in the thousands, they did not establish a strong organizational leadership that would put them on a par with either the Quakers or the Presbyterians. This fractious form led to a split between more hard-line and conservative Baptists who were at odds with the reformed branch.

Catholics and Jews

The recording of a Catholic presence in North Carolina does not actually occur until late in the colonial period, sometime around 1737. Catholics were not part of the great dissenter influx, however, and it would not be until after North Carolina had long become a state that the first diocese would be established: in 1820 in Charleston. Interestingly, the reports of a Jewish presence in the colony precede those of Catholics by 70 years. However, like the delay in conferring an official presence for Catholics, it would take even longer for the first synagogue to be built in North Carolina: in 1875 in Wilmington.