You conveniently gloss over St. Barthelemy’s day massacre as just another reaction to Protestant misbehavior.
Sorry, me and Mr. T descend from the original Americans - Huguenots, Dunkards, Quakers, Puritans and of course Anglicans.
What the Papists did to us and our families forced our ancestors across oceans. But our beliefs and concepts created the greatest country on the face of the Earth and it took little more then a century.
Freedom of inquiry and self reliance instead of slavish adherence to a corrupt gangster establishment is what produced America.
You can make all the excuses you want, but the last statement is a fact.
We have no king but Jesus.
That’s what my ancestors in the Piedmont said as they went up against their monarchist overlords. If you understand it, you understand America.
As I believe I said, "the Huguenots were murdered and mistreated as well." But the St. Barthelemy's Day Massacre occurred over a decade after the Montpelier Cathedral Massacre, the incident that started the French Wars of Religion. Sorry, but "what was done to them" was usually in response to what they done in the case of the Huguenots. As I also said, the French had no "slavish adherence" to the Papacy. The Huguenots, as a group, are among the least sympathetic religious minorities of the period.
"What the Papists did to us and our families forced our ancestors across oceans."
I'm sorry, but this is an utterly foolish statement. The vast majority of the colonists were, of course, English, coming from Protestant England, which had been a Protestant country for many years before Jamestown. Nothing had been done to them by Papists. There were Dutch. They had fought a long war with the Spanish, sure, but the United Provinces had gained independence in 1609 -- less than 10 years after the first Dutch charter to explore N. America and decades before anything approaching a significant number of Dutchmen came over. There were in smaller number, Germans. By the time Germans were coming over, the German states had settled into a system of relative stability, with Landgraves and princes setting religious policy for their kingdoms. Most of them were of Anabaptist persuasion, fleeing persecution from literally everyone. There were Scottish Covenanters, fleeing persecution from English Protestants. Only the Huguenots were a group that you could even begin to make the argument were coming over here because of Catholic persecution, and as I said, a brief perusal of history (real history, not a "Catholics are bogiemen" primer) deflates quite a bit of sympathy for them.
What you're trying to say, is that your ancestors were forced across the ocean by Protestant persecution, and they carried with them a fear and hatred of Spanish and Jacobites that had developed during the Wars of Religion. Luckily for them they weren't all speaking Turkish, as the Catholic bogiemen had managed to turn back the Turks as Vienna (twice), Lepanto, Belgrade, and multiple other places. But I digress.
"But our beliefs and concepts created the greatest country on the face of the Earth and it took little more then a century."
The beliefs and concepts of a handful of long-game thinkers created the greatest country. Germans of various non-mainstream religious belief in Pennsylvania were persecuted right through the Revolution itself. Acts were passed fining and censuring them. Some were marched to Virginia to be held prisoner (and die in some cases) because their religious beliefs forbade them from taking a side. Moravian Lenape Indians were slaughtered in their own church by Pennsylvanian militia under Col. Williamson...They died singing hymns. Catholics were, of course, still persecuted in almost all of the Colonies, including Maryland, which they had founded, only to have it sacked and the Toleration Act (..no person or persons...professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anyways troubled, Molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this Province...The free men have assented) revoked by Protestants. George Washington had to issue an order forbidding the Continental troops from committing outrages against Catholics. John Jay sought to exempt Catholics from the freedoms of the Constitution and leave them open to government persecution. There was a great deal of hatred and interest in using the government to attack religious minorities. The hardy and independent spirit inherent in all those who came to America, regardless of religious belief, is what made America, not some peculiarly Protestant mindset.
Yes. I’m a Maupin from the Williamsburg Maupins. They had
the tavern there where the early American “insurrectionists”
met to talk over their plans. - My grandparents always
referred to Catholics as “those old Catholics”. - My
Huguenot ancestors were driven out of France, stopped in
Holland & went on to England, then on to America. - Mammy
always celebrated “Old Christmas” by not working on that
day. Her maiden name was Maupin. - Our SIL is both a
German and a Catholic. I try to get along with her & not
have any trouble. (Daddy was a combat veteran of WWII in
Germany at the end of the war. He felt some sympathy for
the ordinary German soldier; but not for the Nazi officers.)