Early America Clergy and the Black Robe Regiment(vanity)

THE BLACK REGIMENT LED THE FIGHT IN OUR WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE | Reverend Wayne Sedlaw

[ATriedSoul]

"If magistrates are ministers of God only because the law of God points out the necessity of such an institution for the good of mankind, it follows, that whenever they pursue measures directly destructive of the public good they cease being God's ministers, they forfeit their right to obedience from the subject, they become the pests of society, and the community is under the strongest obligation of duty both to God and to its own members, to resist and oppose them, which will be so far from resisting the ordinance of God that it will be strictly obeying his commands."

[familyop]

Maybe some of them were descendants of the right side of the English Civil War. ;-)

[ATriedSoul]

“Maybe some of them were descendants of the right side of the English Civil War. ;-)”

Hee hee hee!

[ATriedSoul]

“church authority was responsible for calling men to action. Pastors often led the colonists in actual battle...”

[Sherman Logan]

One such demonstration led to a confrontation with British police and the soldiers, responding to taunts, in an unwarranted display of force, fired upon the crowd. This "Boston Massacre" led to the trial of the soldiers involved. When one of the soldiers was asked by the chief justice what objection he had to offer why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, that soldier replied in heated anger, "May it please your Honors! I pray the death of the clergy."

A really garbled acount of the Boston Massacre.

Soldiers were attacked by a mob throwing bricks and shot back, killing 5 of the mob.

Six soldiers were tried in MA court, defended by no less than John Adams. Four were acquitted. The other two were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding on the thumb, by Benefit of Clergy, which is probably the garbled source of the Death of Clergy, in the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_of_clergy

[cripplecreek]

"It was Sunday morning early in the year 1776. In the church where Pastor Muhlenberg preached, it was a regular service for his congregation, but a quite different affair for Muhlenberg himself. Muhlenberg's text for the day was Ecclesiastes 3 where it explains, 'To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted...'"

"Coming to the end of his sermon, Peter Muhlenberg turned to his congregation and said, 'In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.' As those assembled looked on, Pastor Muhlenberg declared, 'There is a time to fight, and that time is now coming!' Muhlenberg then proceeded to remove his robes revealing, to the shock of his congregation, a military uniform."

"Marching to the back of the church he declared, 'Who among you is with me?' On that day 300 men from his church stood up and joined Peter Muhlenberg. They eventually became the 8th Virginia Brigade fighting for liberty."

"Frederick Muhlenberg, Peter's brother, was against Peter's level of involvement in the war. Peter responded to Frederick writing, 'I am a Clergyman it is true, but I am a member of the Society as well as the poorest Layman, and my Liberty is as dear to me as any man, shall I then sit still and enjoy myself at Home when the best Blood of the Covenant is spilling? ...So far am I from thinking that I act wrong, I am convinced it is my duty to do so and duly I owe to God and my country."

[loveliberty2]

Thanks for posting!

A collection of the "Political Sermons of the Founding Era" can be read online here.

The so-called "progressive" movement has attempted to censor and eliminate the essential ideas and principles underlying America's heritage of liberty by removing them from America's textbooks and by relegating the printed texts to dusty stacks in remote places in libraries.

Perhaps Divine Providence has outsmarted their diligent efforts through technology, however, inasmuch as speeches, letters, documents, sermons, and the prolific writings of those who sacrificed for the cause of liberty are available now at the click of a mouse.

Many can be found at the Liberty Library cited above.

[muawiyah]

Some of my colonial ancestors fought well, hard and often in their war against the foreign invaders arriving by the boatload every day in the St. Lawrence. When, at last, defeat was certain they hightailed it to the deep South ~ to Vincinnes on the Wabash, and further South to the Huguenot settlements along the Green River.

When George Rogers Clark showed up the Beedel family men signed on ~ some of them actually having been in combat on the Plains of Abraham.

No doubt a lingering hankering after an earlier America motivated the Cahokia militia in their attack on Fort St.Joseph in Michigan at about the same time ~ they flew the flag of Spain!

Too often people forget that there were many others already here long before the Treaty of London (1604), and this is the only country their descendants got, or that they think about.

[ATriedSoul]

“This Black Regiment was responsible for providing the conviction and wisdom necessary for winning a war against the cruelty of an unjust government...British sympathizers so named them because Colonial enemies knew that the seeds of what the British called ‘sedition’ or “revolution” were being sown in the pulpits of America...Without the outspoken, tenacious and courageous leadership exhibited by the pastors of the “Black Regiment”, it is doubtful whether American independence could ever have been achieved. “

[ATriedSoul]

To: Sherman Logan, thanks for that.

[ATriedSoul]

to loveliberty2, thanks so much for the link!
best,
ATriedSoul

[ATriedSoul]

Thanks for contributing info on your ancestors...wonderful story—do you have a written history or a link you can post here?
ATS

[muawiyah]

Next time you get a chance to read "Drums Along the Mohawk" the ELCA minister of the Scandinavian and Dutch Lutheran community at the Old Yellow Church in/near/Canajoharie ~ is a direct ancestor of mine.

He left nothing behind written in English or German, just his Baptismal notes in what seems to be Swedish. He had a good dozen male children of age to serve, and they all did so ~ the white ones, the Indian ones ~ all on the American side ~ mostly as scouts ~ the toughest jobs.

Note, the writer wrote about real people in the Revolution on the New York frontier, but he didn't use a single real name, nor did he leave behind a cross reference list.

[ATriedSoul]

CrippleCreek, thank you for this addition to the thread—this is a very emotion-packed account. ATS

[ATriedSoul]

These you mention stories are priceless...

[muawiyah]

We will have ~ my father did a book that begins with a listing on the Revolutionary War vets in the lineage ~ and goes from there up to the present time. i've worked backwards to Brittany and Sweden, and, to a degree, to Spain and Italy ~ whole new piece of history for me ~ Brittany used to be a major European power.

A relative was the editor in chief of the Catholic Encyclopedia a century ago ~ and he seems to have made sure every single relate we ever had in the hierarchy got a nice piece written about him. Digesting a bunch of that stuff currently ~ there's a pope and what seems to be a couple of anti-popes in there. That relative knew some stuff I am sure.

[cripplecreek]

You might enjoy this. Lots of documents, letters, sermons etc.

http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/primarysources.html

[ATriedSoul]

We will have ~ my father did a book that begins with a listing on the Revolutionary War vets in the lineage ~ and goes from there up to the present time. i’ve worked backwards to Brittany and Sweden, and, to a degree, to Spain and Italy ~ whole new piece of history for me ~ Brittany used to be a major European power.
“A relative was the editor in chief of the Catholic Encyclopedia a century ago ~ and he seems to have made sure every single relate we ever had in the hierarchy got a nice piece written about him. Digesting a bunch of that stuff currently ~ there’s a pope and what seems to be a couple of anti-popes in there. That relative knew some stuff I am sure. “

What an incredibly rich history that is being captured...

[SoConPubbie]

Great resource CC!

[ATriedSoul]

A Black Regiment site

http://brr.wallbuilders.com/take-the-pledge!.aspx