Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MILLENNIAL TRADITION IN COLONIAL AMERICA
- PART II THE RISE AND DECLINE OF MILLENNIALISM IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA
- 3 Whig resistance and apocalyptical Manichaeanism
- 4 The revolutionary millennialism of the 1770's
- 5 Visions of progress and ruin in the Critical Period
- PART III THE ESCHATOLOGICAL REVIVAL OF THE 1790'S
- Notes
- Index
4 - The revolutionary millennialism of the 1770's
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MILLENNIAL TRADITION IN COLONIAL AMERICA
- PART II THE RISE AND DECLINE OF MILLENNIALISM IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA
- 3 Whig resistance and apocalyptical Manichaeanism
- 4 The revolutionary millennialism of the 1770's
- 5 Visions of progress and ruin in the Critical Period
- PART III THE ESCHATOLOGICAL REVIVAL OF THE 1790'S
- Notes
- Index
Summary
To drive out nations before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 4: 38Between 1773 and 1776 a fully millennial interpretation of the imperial crisis rose to the fore as American patriots finally moved from resistance to revolution. Sermons now often described the trials and tribulations of the conflicts with Great Britain as the last “Cup of Affliction” before the elect would be “crowned with Glory,” as the debacle that would lead to “a new and more perfect system,” as “Calamities… preparing the Way” for the millennium. In 1775 a loyalist satire portraying the colonists as lawless fanatics pointed precisely to their wild hope that “the glorious reign of Independency shall begin in America – the long wished-for Millennium of the Saints.” With varying degrees of biblical literalism, millennial aspirations became a prominent feature of American revolutionary consciousness. Such secular statements as the declarations of the newly formed Continental Congress actually alluded to biblical prophecy in their visions of “the golden period, when liberty, with all the gentle arts of peace and humanity, shall establish her mild dominion,” “that latest period, when the streams of time shall be absorbed in the abyss of eternity”. Newspapers looked ahead to the prospect of America shining “brighter and brighter,” becoming “more and more free,” until, under the protection of God, “she may bid defiance to every oppressor throughout the world” and approach the “perfect freedom and happiness” of the heavenly kingdom.
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- Visionary RepublicMillennial Themes in American Thought, 1756–1800, pp. 75 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985
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