The role of Catholicism in the American Revolution

Christianity has played a pivotal role in the development of America since colonial times. It is often discussed in historical circles the role that Quaker, Protestant, Baptist, and Evangelical theological thinking had on the men that would go on to become the Founding Fathers of the United States. These Christian denominations influenced the lives of not only the founding fathers but a large number of men in colonial America so much that it is undeniable that it played a part in their decision to rebel against the British Empire in 1775. The Christian influenced culture of the colonies gave them the needed moral strength to pursue what they viewed as a just cause in their quest for freedom from a tyrannical and foreign overlord.

While not as influential as other Christian denominations, Catholics played a smaller bur symbolically important role in the American Revolution. The Catholic church itself may have been an indirect causation for the war with the Quebec Act of 1774. While small, the Catholic Patriot support, together with Catholic French military aid, helped to shape the attitude of religious freedom and tolerance in the newly found republic after the war, as well as push well established anti-Catholic rhetoric away from the minds of the American public.

At the outbreak of the Revolution, Catholics only made up around 1% of the total population of the 13 colonies, roughly 25,000 people. They were settled mostly in Maryland, a colony set up as a Catholic haven. Others were settled in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virgina. Given the long feud between the British Anglican and the Roman Catholic churches, many Catholics suffered persecution in colonies outside of Maryland. Persecutions included not being allowed to vote or hold office and linking Catholicism to tyranny and absolutism given their loyalty to the Pope. Despite this, when revolution came the Catholics of America largely took up the Patriot cause.

In 1774, as tensions were reaching a boiling point, the government in London passed the Quebec Act which protected Catholic worship and ensured a form of self-determination for French Canadians in Canada. This was done to prevent Canada from joining the rebellious 13 colonies. This was viewed largely as one of the “Intolerable Acts” by the rebelling colonists who resented that the government established a Catholic buffer on their border. Despite the clear fact that anti-Catholic rhetoric from the 13 colonies led them to consider the Quebec Act of 1774 a part of the “Intolerable Acts”, they would not turn even more hostile towards Catholicism as one might expect. In fact, the opposite happened.

After war broke out officially, the Continental Congress attempted to bring Canada into the fold and appealed to them using a respectful approach to Catholicism. Despite failing to secure Canada as the 14^th Colony, Congress knew it needed foreign aid to win the war. Economic aid from Catholic Spain and more importantly a military alliance from Catholic France was secured which eventually led to victory at the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake. Congress knew that Catholic European monarchies were vital in order to save the Revolution.

A notable Catholic figure of the Revolution was Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. His signature was a symbolic statement to American Catholics as it publicly tied Catholicism to the Patriot cause. Another notable figure was Dr. John Carroll, Charles’s cousin and the future first Bishop of Baltimore, Stephen Moylan, an aide-de-camp to General George Washington and Quartermaster General, John Barry, the first commissioned Naval Officer of the United States Navy and considered by some as the father of the United Stated Navy, and the French Marquis de Lafayette and Admiral de Grasse.

Together with the thousands of Catholic men, both French and American, who fought for the Patriot cause, these men helped to gain the independence of the United States and to solidify the freedom of religion that the new republic was to be based on. Catholicism experienced a steady growth in the United States following the Revolution that the Church in Rome sought adequate to raise the first diocese of Baltimore (established in 1789) to an archdiocese in 1808. The role of Catholicism in the American Revolution is one that is not as discussed as other Christian denominations, but one that played just as an important of a role. Without the role of Catholics, the American Revolution could not have succeeded as it did.

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