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Vol. 30:1 ISSN 0160-8460 March 2002
The Executive Director's Column:
Important Documentary Sources Relating to the History of the United States
by Ann C. Newhall
The separation of church and state is a fundamental precept of this nation, articulated in the First Amendment to our Constitution. Throughout our history, religious groups and those who defined themselves primarily by their religious beliefs have also helped to shape the American story.
Some areas of what now constitutes the United States of America were originally settled by those seeking the freedom to believe and worship as they preferred; other areas were developed by those for whom imperial and religious agendas were intertwined. As a consequence, those seeking to learn about the early experiences of European settlers or their contacts with the Native American populations must rely heavily upon accounts recorded by missionaries, among others.
In the 19th century, the movement to abolish slavery was driven to a great extent by religious belief and by those identified with specific churches. Religious groups and organizations influenced the development of communities, provided relief for the poor and destitute, and founded many of our health and educational institutions.
Historians of the 20th century, a time often dismissed as particularly secular, have written at length about the radio broadcasts of Father Charles Coughlin, the aid given by religious welfare societies to those fleeing Hitler's Germany, the questions raised during the 1928 and 1960 U.S. Presidential campaigns as to whether a Catholic could be elected President, and the leadership by some Baptist ministers within the civil rights movement.
Each successive wave of immigration has injected new ideas, cultures, and, often, religions into the American consciousness. How Americans of so many faiths have engaged one another in shaping a society based on religious pluralism is, in itself, a fascinating area of study for many historians.
Thus, in fulfilling its mission to support a wide range of activities to preserve, publish, and encourage the use of documentary sources relating to the history of the United States, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission has made grants involving the records of religious organizations, or focusing upon an individual or group affiliated with such an organization. However, it has done so only if the organization is a nonprofit institution, the records are of importance to understanding American history, and the records addressed will be accessible to all on an equal basis.
The NHPRC has supported a number of documentary editions of the papers of such individuals as Francis Asbury (Methodist), David Avery (Congregationalist), John Ireland (Catholic), Isaac Backus (Baptist), Howard Thurman (interdenominational), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Baptist). It has sponsored editions documenting both the activities of Jesuit missionaries on the frontier and the creation of the Harmony Society.
Among its records access projects, the Commission has supported a project to process papers relating to the German Methodist Church in America; a project to arrange and describe papers involving pioneers in religious radio broadcasting; a project to develop a records management program and to arrange and describe records relating to the Buddhist churches of America; a project to collect and make accessible historical records on conservative Judaism in America; and a project to conduct workshops across the country on basic archival techniques for persons designated as the archivists of their religious orders.
Church and synagogue records of ceremonies surrounding births, marriages, and deaths constitute an important source for historians and genealogists, and in some cases have proven to be the only means of establishing an individual's entitlement to benefits such as social security. Accordingly, a number of states have utilized NHPRC regrant funding, matched by state money, to award small grants to preserve such records.
This issue of Annotation presents articles on a number of such projects. There is a discussion of religion and the Founding Fathers, drawn in part from materials published by several of the NHPRC-sponsored documentary editing projects. Other articles describe projects focusing upon Lucretia Mott (a Quaker), Catholic social reformers, a major figure in the Pentecostal movement, and early 19th-century Cherokee and Moravian spirituality. There are accounts of NHPRC projects to preserve the records of Georgetown Visitation Monastery and to locate, accession and process the papers of the first women ordained as Episcopalian priests. And there is an article on an African missionary, his American family, and their links with South Africa.
I hope you enjoy this issue.
