Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-391) and index.
Summary
"Religious and national diversity characterized the settlements of the Delaware Valley almost from the first arrival of Europeans, and America's first pluralistic society evolved from this colony established by William Penn on the western shore of the Delaware River in 1681. Penn himself set forth a new, ideological basis for pluralism and tolerance, and this transformed a tentative, pragmatic pattern of relative harmony and tolerance into official policy. The English culture transplanted to Pennsylvania was itself fragmented. Quakers and Anglican, for example, had very different religious, social, and cultural values. Colonists from different parts of the British Isles-the Welsh, the Scots, and the Scotch-Irish-did not share common experiences or cultures. The 'Swedes' were both Swedish and Finnish in origins and culture and, while often designated 'Germans' or 'Palatines' by English-speaking Pennsylvanians, emigrants from the Rhineland spoke different dialects, practiced a wide variety of religious observances, and had little in common historically or culturally. Penn's ideals, ideas and policies set in motion forces that had significant effects on the development of this extremely heterogenous colony. This book explores the ways in which the implications of Penn's ideals were gradually worked out in Pennsylvania and how a stable and generally tolerant society was created."
"The Great Awakening of the 1740s was a religious revival of dramatic scope and violence that swept through the mid-Atlantic colonies, transforming 18th-century American society. The origins of the Awakening, however, argues Marilyn J. Westerkamp in this important revisionist study, were far removed from America in time and place. Examining the revivalist movement in Scotland, Ireland, and the middle colonies over a 135-year period, Westerkamp shows that the Awakening had its roots in Scots-Irish revivalism and travelled with Scots-Irish emigrants to the North American colonies. Hardly the spiritual innovation that it is sometimes represented to be, the Awakening was thus but one development in a longstanding revivalist tradition." [from Goodreads]
