Key Takeaways
1. Providentialism: The British Roots of American National Identity
The idea that God has directed the history of the United States has become a commonplace in American life, a way of imagining America’s purpose and history that seems so thoroughly familiar that one can easily overlook its essential oddness.
Defining Providence. Providentialism, the belief that God controls earthly events, was not an American invention but deeply rooted in British thought. It manifested in three forms:
- Judicial: God rewards or punishes nations based on their virtue.
- Historical: God has a special, progressive plan for certain nations.
- Apocalyptic: God is literally enacting biblical prophecies in current events.
This framework was crucial for understanding national purpose and identity.
Colonial applications. Early English colonization efforts in America, from Virginia to New England, were framed within these existing British providential ideas. Promoters and settlers often invoked divine favor for their ventures, whether for commercial success or religious freedom. However, these interpretations were often flexible, adapting to challenges like disease, conflict with Native Americans, and the inherent tension between spiritual goals and material ambitions.
English influence. The tumultuous English Civil War initially drew American colonists' attention back to England, as they sought to understand God's primary work there. However, the eventual "providential quietism" in post-Restoration England, which discouraged political-religious interpretations, inadvertently paved the way for a distinct American providentialism to emerge, focusing on America's unique, divinely guided trajectory.
2. Early American Colonies: Conflicting Providential Purposes
The story of this rival effort gives us an idea of the many meanings of America in the seventeenth-century English world and invites a fresh analysis of the purpose and identity of the early American colonies.
Virginia's struggle. Virginia's early promoters, despite its commercial focus, attempted to imbue the colony with providential significance. They cited divine intervention in events like the miraculous survival of shipwrecked settlers and emphasized the spiritual goal of Indian conversion. Yet, the colony's persistent failures and the undeniable pursuit of profit often undermined these lofty claims, making it difficult to articulate a consistent divine purpose.
New England's vision. In contrast, New England Puritans, fleeing religious repression under Charles I, saw their settlements as a "hiding place" and a "city on a hill." They believed God had a special plan for them. However, this vision was not monolithic:
- Some saw America as a temporary refuge.
- Others envisioned it as a permanent chosen land.
- The stated goal of Indian conversion often clashed with violent conflicts like the Pequot War, forcing settlers to reconcile contradictory providential interpretations.
Shifting interpretations. The meaning of these early settlements was fluid, influenced by both internal colonial struggles and external English politics. The debate between John Winthrop and William Fiennes over Providence Island, for instance, revealed how easily providential claims could be contested, demonstrating that America's divine purpose was far from settled and deeply intertwined with the broader English world.
3. The English Civil War: A Catalyst for American Providential Separatism
The effect of this disagreement on religious freedom was to confirm New England as peripheral, even irrelevant to the momentous events taking place back home.
England's central stage. The English Civil War (1640s-1660) initially dominated the providential imagination of American colonists. Many Puritans returned to England, believing God's primary work was unfolding there. New England's rigid Congregationalism, in an era of growing calls for religious toleration in England, made its model seem less relevant to the momentous changes occurring in the mother country.
Cromwell's apocalyptic vision. English figures like Joseph Mede and Oliver Cromwell attempted to integrate America into grand apocalyptic schemes. Mede speculated about Indians as Gog and Magog, while Cromwell's disastrous "Western Design" (the invasion of Hispaniola) was seen as a providential blow against the Antichrist. Its failure, however, plunged Cromwell into providential doubt, highlighting the risks of literal apocalyptic interpretations.
Emergence of American distinctiveness. The Restoration in 1660, and the subsequent "providential quietism" in England (which discouraged political-religious interpretations after the Civil War's excesses), created a vacuum. New Englanders, particularly figures like Edward Johnson, responded by developing a distinct "historical providentialism." This narrative emphasized America's continuous divine favor and progressive destiny, largely independent of England's turbulent past, laying the groundwork for a separate national identity.
4. Revolutionary America: Forging a Distinct, Progressive Destiny
By the time of the American Revolution, Patriots argued that God had given America a special role in history and that independence had been providentially determined.
Shifting allegiances. The Stamp Act crisis (1765-1766) marked a pivotal moment, transforming a shared Anglo-American providentialism into a distinct American narrative. Colonists, initially celebrating British victories as divine favor, began to emphasize their own divine protection since 1620, portraying Britain as a villain obstructing God's plan for America.
A new national narrative. Patriot orators like John Witherspoon and Thomas Paine skillfully employed "historical providentialism" to justify independence. They argued that God had:
- Designed America for independence from the outset.
- Destined it for a vast continental empire.
- Appointed it as a global beacon of liberty, a new "asylum of liberty and true religion."
This rhetoric reassured a hesitant populace and inspired military action.
Conditional destiny. This providential vision was not passive; it demanded active participation. Americans were called to be "fellow-workers with God," with their actions determining the fulfillment of their divine destiny. This progressive, secular-historical trajectory, while avoiding explicit apocalyptic predictions, provided a powerful framework for national purpose, even as British observers, despite their skepticism, recognized the potent "political prophecy" embedded in American claims.
5. The Early Republic: Providentialism Fractured by French Revolution and Partisanship
The French Revolution indicated the successful passage of American liberties across the Atlantic but also heralded a reformation of politics that would encompass the globe.
Post-Revolutionary optimism. After securing independence, America's providential consensus faced new internal and external pressures. The ratification of the Constitution was framed by Federalists as a divinely inspired act, essential for continuing America's destiny. News of the French Revolution initially fueled this optimism, seen as a global validation of American principles and a harbinger of "universal freedom."
French disillusionment. However, France's descent into the Reign of Terror and irreligion (1793-1794) fractured this consensus. Federalists, alarmed by the excesses and the rise of deism (epitomized by Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"), began to view France as a cautionary tale. They feared "foreign influence" and internal "corruption" (Democratic-Republicans), leading to a pessimistic outlook on America's future.
Divergent destinies. Republicans, while struggling to reconcile French turmoil with their providential vision, shifted their focus. They increasingly emphasized westward expansion (e.g., the Louisiana Purchase) as America's primary divine mission, rather than the regeneration of Europe. This period saw the emergence of distinct, often conflicting, providential narratives: Federalist pessimism about national decline versus Republican optimism centered on continental growth.
6. Race and Removal: Providential Justifications for Segregation
Providential language aspired to minimize debate over slavery, obviate blame for prejudice in the United States, and present free black removal as the only avenue open to American benevolence.
Racial challenges. After the War of 1812, the continued presence of Native Americans and African Americans directly challenged the narrative of America's divinely ordained, progressive destiny. White Americans grappled with how to reconcile their national mission with persistent racial diversity and inequality.
Indian removal's divine mandate. Advocates like Jedidiah Morse and Isaac McCoy proposed "benevolent colonization" for Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi. They argued this removal was:
- A providential duty for Indian "civilization" and Christianization.
- A "natural" process of Indian "diminishing" before white expansion.
This rhetoric aimed to justify displacement while appearing altruistic, though opponents warned of divine wrath for such injustice.
African colonization's providential purpose. The American Colonization Society (ACS), founded by Robert Finley, promoted the removal of free blacks to Liberia. This scheme was framed as:
- The next stage in America's providential destiny.
- A "divine impulse" to redeem the African continent.
- Slavery itself was reinterpreted as a providential tool, preparing Africans for their mission in Liberia. This narrative sought to absolve white Americans of blame for slavery and prejudice.
7. Slavery's Providential Dilemma: Wrath vs. Progress
The American Revolution was a battle not for universal principles but for the more modest goal of insisting that Britons and (white, male) Americans had the same blood and the same political rights.
Abolitionist warnings. Opponents of slavery, like William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, increasingly employed a "providentialism of wrath." They warned that God would punish the United States with national destruction if it failed to abolish slavery, rejecting the idea of a progressive national destiny tainted by the institution.
Proslavery counter-arguments. Southern proslavery theorists (e.g., Thomas Dew, James Henry Hammond) countered by:
- Citing biblical passages (like Noah's curse on Ham) to justify slavery as divinely sanctioned.
- Portraying slavery as a civilizing force that protected and improved Africans, contrasting it with the "extinction" of Native Americans.
- Framing slavery as a "badge of a fallen world," an inevitable imperfection in human society, and attacking abolitionists as utopian reformers akin to French Revolutionaries.
Manifest Destiny's entanglement. The expansionist rhetoric of "manifest destiny" in the 1840s, while promoting America's providential growth, became deeply entangled with the slavery debate. The question of whether new territories would be slave or free, and the racial implications of annexing non-white populations (e.g., Mexicans), ultimately brought the sectional crisis to a head, revealing the inherent contradictions in a providential vision that sought both expansion and the perpetuation of slavery.
8. The Civil War: A Providential Reckoning for Slavery
This Union has not yet accomplished what good for mankind was manifestly designed by Him who appoints the seasons.
Confederate divine mandate. The Civil War ignited intense providential speculation in both North and South. Confederates, like Vice-President Alexander Stephens, explicitly enshrined God in their constitution and declared racial inequality as the "corner-stone" of their new nation. They argued slavery was a "divine trust," protected by God, essential for cotton commerce, and a means of preserving blacks from extinction.
Union's initial struggle. Unionists, exemplified by Senator William Seward, initially clung to the idea that America's providential mission would prevent secession. However, early defeats like Bull Run (1861) forced a re-evaluation. Many northern clergy, including abolitionists like George Cheever, began to argue that the war was divine punishment for slavery, and victory required emancipation.
Lincoln's providential shift. Abraham Lincoln, initially cautious, gradually embraced this fusion of judicial and historical providentialism. He came to see the war as a "fiery trial" designed by God to purge the national sin of slavery. This interpretation allowed the North to frame the conflict as a redemptive act, securing America's "last, best hope of earth" and its glorious future.
9. Lincoln's Providential Compromise: Emancipation Without Equality
Once relieved of this, the form of government is saved to the world; its beloved history, and cherished memories, are vindicated; and its happy future fully assured, and rendered inconceivably grand.
Emancipation and colonization. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1862) was a monumental step, aligning the Union cause with abolition as a divine imperative. Yet, it was coupled with his continued advocacy for black colonization in places like Chiriquí, Panama. He believed racial differences were indelible and that black removal was necessary for both races' well-being and for America's future.
Racial prejudice persists. Northern whites, while accepting emancipation as God's will, often invoked providential authority to justify racial segregation and expatriation. Publications like Harper's Magazine portrayed blacks as a "stumbling-block" to national unity, destined for a "temporary sojourn" in America before a providential "return" to Africa. This allowed for the acceptance of abolition without challenging deep-seated racism.
A purified national narrative. Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address" (1865) masterfully framed the war as God's punishment for the national sin of slavery, leading to national redemption. His assassination further cemented his image as a martyr, solidifying the idea that emancipation—not racial equality—was the providential capstone of America's mission. This narrative encouraged white Americans to view abolition as a panacea, absolving them of past sins and future responsibilities for black equality.
10. Post-War Reunion: Reconciling Slavery and Destiny
Let the Northern man on his side confess that slavery did improve the negro in the past, . . . and let the Southern man . . . admit that the negro since release from slavery has continued to improve.
The "Lost Cause Regained." After 1865, prominent southerners like Edward Pollard, Atticus Haygood, and Henry W. Grady actively sought to reconcile the South with the Union. They accepted emancipation as a providential outcome but simultaneously argued that slavery had played a "providential part" in "civilizing" and preparing blacks for freedom. This narrative aimed to salvage southern honor and justify past actions.
New South's providential vision. This "New South" ideology promoted a providential reunion, where slavery had "fulfilled its mission" and emancipation was a blessing. However, it insisted on white supremacy and racial segregation as divinely ordained, arguing that God intended distinct roles for the races. This allowed white southerners to maintain social control while appearing to embrace national unity.
Marginalizing racial justice. This narrative, widely disseminated through national magazines and speeches, reassured northern whites of the South's commitment to national destiny, even as it justified continued racial hierarchy. It effectively marginalized calls for genuine racial justice, creating a framework for reunion that prioritized white reconciliation over black equality and postponed a true reckoning with America's racial past.
11. Abolitionist Disillusionment: The Unfulfilled Promise of Racial Justice
The Almighty made it necessary that we should either abolish slavery or bid adieu to the American Union.
Jubilee or continued struggle? After 1865, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison initially celebrated the "jubilee" of emancipation, believing their mission was accomplished and the nation regenerated. However, the persistence of racial prejudice and the failures of Reconstruction quickly led to disillusionment.
Warnings of divine wrath. Many abolitionists, including George Cheever and Wendell Phillips, continued to warn of divine wrath if racial equality was not secured. Cheever, for instance, insisted that any "interpolation" of racial discrimination in state constitutions would invite "another storm of Divine wrath." This stance clashed with the prevailing narrative of national purification through emancipation alone.
Douglass's pragmatic mission. Frederick Douglass, while embracing America's "sacred significance," rejected providential deferral and emphasized human agency in achieving racial justice. He saw the war as a step towards a "perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family." However, even his vision of American mission, which included supporting expansion into places like Santo Domingo, struggled against the realities of post-war discrimination and the dilution of the religious basis of historical providentialism.
