Description
Book SynopsisTells the diverse story of four congregations in New York City as they navigated the social and political changes of the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries.
In the fifty years after the Constitution was signed in 1787, New York City grew from a port town of 30,000 to a metropolis of over half a million residents. This rapid development transformed a once tightknit community and its religious experience. Including four churches belonging in various forms to the Church of England, that in some form still thrive today. Rapid urban and social change connected these believers in unity in the late colonial era. As the city grew larger, more impersonal, and socially divided, churches reformed around race and class-based neighborhoods.
In Four Steeples over the City Streets, Kyle T. Bulthuis examines the intertwining of these four famous institutionsTrinity Episcopal, John Street Methodist, Mother Zion African Methodist, and St. Philip's (African) Episcopalto un
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Kyle T. Bulthuiss carefully researched volume investigates the impact of urban expansion on four New York City churches between the late colonial period and the American Civil War. [] This book is essential reading for those interested in urban churches in antebellum America. * The Journal of American History *
An impressive work [that] casts new and important insights onto our understandings of religion, race, and the history of New York. It brings together issues religious history, race class and the city. It will be a great boon to scholars and students in a variety of academic disciplines. -- Robert Bruce Mullin,Society for the Promotion of Religion & Learning Professor of History, General Theological Seminary
For too long, historians have treated early American religion as a rural phenomenon, shaped by the pressures of the frontier more than the hustle and bustle of urban seaports. Kyle BulthuissFour Steeples over the City Streets challenges these assumptions, recovering the rich stories of some of Manhattans oldest congregations over the tumultuous period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. . . . Bulthuis has done for New Yorks African American religious communities what Gary Nash and Richard Newman have done for Philadelphias: He has recovered forgotten founders, wrenching moments of crisis, and inspiring stories of perseverance in the face of persistent societal racism. . . . A distinctly New York story, reflective of the opportunities and challenges facing that city as it emerged as the nations commercial center by the eve of the Civil War. -- Kyle Roberts,Loyola University Chicago
Kyle Bulthuis's finely tuned, exhaustively researched history deepens our understanding of early American urban interracial worship. Focusing on four significant New York City congregations, Bulthuisshows us how black and white Christians contested theology, slavery, gender, and class. This book will fascinate anyone caring about cities, American religion, and major social issues. -- Graham Russell Gao Hodges,Langdon Professor of History, Colgate University
[] Bulthuis provides an excellent case study that effectively uses multiple analytic approaches.Four Steeplesjoins a growing number of important studies that together show how race relations in churches varied by time and place in early America. * William and Mary Quarterly *
This is a fascinating study and one worth reading for a glimpse into the evolving religious world of the United States in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
* Lutheran Quarterly *
The author has written a fine study with the comparisons, both similarities and contrasts, of how these four congregations, with similar ecclesiological heritages, interacted with society. That is a considerable undertaking and in this case, executed with skill. * Methodist History *
Many of Bulthuis findings are based on his painstaking efforts to determine the social composition of these congregations across many decades. Using communicant, member, and class lists from the churches along with city directories and other sources of occupational and gender information, he effectively portrays the make-up of these bodies and persuasively employs this material to explain much of their history. * American Historical Review *
Four Steeples models how social history can enrich our understanding ofreligion.[T]he book deserves to be read by every church historian and all historians ofthe early republic. * Anglican and Episcopal History *
Historian Bulthuis thoroughly merges US religious history with the history of New York City from the Colonial era through the early republic. He combines social history and institutional church histories and argues that scholars have often relegated religion to a secondary role in relation to gender, race, and class. . . . A timely reminder of the contingent nature of history and the strategic role that religion played in the New York City urban landscape. * Choice *
What Bulthuis offers is a careful and sophisticated analysis of four interconnected, but very different Anglican parishes. He convincingly describes an Anglican community in New York City that clung persistently to the notion of Anglican unity, but a union that was limited in practice. * H-Net Reviews *
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Pursuit of Religious, Racial, and Social Unity in an Early Republic Metropolis 1 1 The Foundations of Religious Establishment: The Colonial Era 13 2 Religious Establishment Challenged, Destroyed, and Re-formed: The Revolutionary Era 30 3 Creating Merchant Churches: The 1790s 48 4 Stepping Up and Out: White Women in the Church, 1800-1820 75 5 Gendering Race in the Church: Black Male Benevolence, 1800-1820 97 6 Preacher Power: Congregational Political Strugglesas Social Conflicts, 1810-1830 120 7 Neighborly Refinement and Withdrawal: 1820-1840 146 8 Reaping the Whirlwind: Immigration and Riot, 1830-1850 170 Conclusion. Elusive Unity: City Churches in a Romantic Age, after 1840 196 Notes 207 Bibliography 243 Index 263 About the Author 271
