[Pharmboy]

Freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion...

[Pharmboy]

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...

[knarf]

"the first English language Bible to be printed in America by Robert Aitken in 1782 was a King James Version. Robert Aitken’s 1782 Bible was also the only Bible ever authorized by the United States Congress. He was commended by President George Washington for providing Americans with Bibles during the embargo of imported English goods due to the Revolutionary War."

From;

Greatsite.com

A little more than halfway down the page.

It is the KJV, just referred to as the Aitkin Bible.

The KJV is the Bible of the Revolution, the colonies .... America.

[Sherman Logan]

In 1777, an entrepreneur Scotsman, Robert Aitken, courageously set out to publish the first New Testament ever printed in America.

I'm curious why a printer trying to fill an obvious demand should be thought particularly "courageous."

It's not like the Brits would have shot him for printing the Bible if they had won.

[Sherman Logan]

In the early days of the struggling American colonies, England refused to grant permission to the colonists to print the sacred text on the new continent. All Bibles were imported from England. This allowed appropriate taxes and revenues to be collected.

It does not appear there was ever an actual legal prohibition on printing Bibles in the colonies. Rather, for a number of financial reasons, it was easier and cheaper to import such a massive production than to print it here. Bibles in Algonquin and German were certainly printed in the colonies long before independence.

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/colonial-bibles.html

I can find no record of import taxes being levied specifically on Bibles or other books, as opposed to a very low rate charged on all imports.

[colorado tanker]

I assume this was the King James version, but couldn't find anything with Google. Wiki says this is one of the rarest books in the world, with 30-40 copies thought to still exist.