[mnehring]

There is no evidence that the British burned American churches during the Revolution.

Where do you get that from? In addition to the very famous Bround Brook incident, the Scots actually called the American Revolution the "Presbyterian Revolution" because the British, early on, burned over 50 Presbyterian churches. "To the privations, hardships and cruelties of the war the Presbyterians were pre-eminently exposed. In them the very essence of rebellion was supposed to be concentrated, and by the wanton plunderings and excesses of the marauding parties they suffered severely. Their Presbyterianism was prima facie evidence of guilt. A house that had a large Bible and David’s Psalms in meter in it was supposed, as a matter of course, to be tenanted by rebels." - W.P. Breed, Episcopalian minister in Philadelphia

[mnehring]

"Nor was this an isolated incident; throughout the northern Colonies, dissident churches were systematically abused. The Presbyterian church at Newtown, Long Island, had its steeple sawed off, and was used as a prison and guardhouse. Later, it was torn down completely, and its boards used for the construction of soldier huts. In New Jersey, the church at Princeton was stripped of its pews and gallery for fuel, and the churches at Elizabeth and Mount Holly were burned. In New York City, the Presbyterian churches were made into prisons, or used by British officers for stabling their horses." Many Presbyterian ministers lost their homes and property. Bancroft describes one incident, "One Huck, a captain of British militia, fired [i.e. "set aflame"] the library and dwelling-house of the clergy man at William’s plantation in the upper part of South Carolina, and burned every Bible into which the Scotch Irsh translation of the psalms was bound." - Boettner, op. cit., p. 384

[Rockingham]

I stand corrected on those particulars. Nevertheless, these were limited examples and not part of a general policy — as the wide scale survival through the Revolution of most colonial era churches indicates.

[LS]

You raise an interesting point---one that my friend Dave Dougherty has been making to me for a few weeks---that in many ways the American Revolution was a Scots-Irish revolution against the Brits. Almost 1/3 of the generals and top officers were Scots Irish, and New England was actually disproportionately NOT as well represented as a % of population.

I knew some incidents of burning churches happened, but I hadn't put two and two together.