This spotlight symposium on the religious thinkers and ideas that shaped the American Revolution was co-sponsored by The New England Quarterly and the Congregational Library & Archives.
As we approached the 250th anniversary of the American founding, we welcomed the opportunity for new perspectives on this global event. Using the CLA’s Religion of Revolution digital exhibition as a springboard, we put Congregationalism—once Massachusetts’ established religion—in wider conversation with the many faiths of that era.
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM
8:30 – 9:30 AM
BREAKFAST AND WELCOME
Hosted by Symposium Co-Chairs: Dr. Lauren Hibbert (Congregational Library & Archives) and Dr. Sara Georgini (New England Quarterly)
9:30 – 11 AM
ROUNDTABLE ON RELIGION, REVOLUTION, AND PUBLIC HISTORY
Moderated by Dr. Jessica Parr (Northeastern University)
Dr. Kyle Roberts (Congregational Library & Archives)
Nikki Stewart (Old North Illuminated)
Rev. Rebecca Froom (United First Parish Church, Quincy, MA)
11 AM – 12 PM
PANEL 1: ARCHIVAL JOURNEYS
War Records: The American Revolution: Seen Through Congregational Church Records
Dr. Lori Rogers-Stokes (Independent Scholar)
Unrequited Freedom: Portsmouth’s North Church and Black Agency in Revolutionary New Hampshire
Erica McAvoy (University of New Hampshire)
12 – 1 PM
LUNCH
1 – 2:30 PM
PANEL 2: PROPHETS AND PREACHERS
African American Evangelism to Indigenous People during the Revolutionary Era
Dr. Richard Boles (Oklahoma State University)
Personal Prophecy and the American Revolution: Explaining the Crisis and Disseminating “American Exceptionalism”
Dr. Jennifer Egloff (New York University Shanghai)
Against Tyranny of Pope and King: Anti-Catholicism as Anti-British Sentiment in Pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts
Greta Gaffin (Boston University)
2:30 – 3:30 PM
PANEL 3: RELIVING REVOLUTION
Theodore Parker’s Memory of the Revolution and the Theology of Violence
Dr. Benjamin E. Park (Sam Houston State University)
“My New England Head”: Mary Bradstreet Robie and the Experience of Loyalist Exile
Dr. Patrick O’Brien (University of Tampa)
3:30 – 4:30 PM
RECEPTION AND SACRED REBELLION TOUR
Led by Dr. Tricia Peone (New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director, Congregational Library & Archives)
4:30 – 6 PM
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Dr. Tara Bynum (University of Iowa): A Revolutionary History of Everyday Kinds of Black Joy; or, “Congregating” in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island
