Myth #14: The Puritans were peace-loving Christians who honored freedom and came to America to practice freedom of religion.
Myth #15: English Protestants in Roanoke in 1587, Jamestown in 1607, and the Massachusetts Colony in 1620, were the first European communities in America.
1) Catholics: The First to settle in Georgia and the Carolinas;
2) Catholics: The First to settle in Maryland and Virginia;
3) Catholics: The First to settle in New England)
Myth #16: Maryland was the first of the original thirteen colonies that did not have laws against Catholics and the practice of the Catholic Religion. It was truly the first "free" state.
In other words, contrary to both Catholic teaching and our Lord's command at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew (ch.28:19-20), Catholics were prohibited from spreading the True Faith and practicing it openly and publicly, since this would cause scandal and trouble for Protestants. Nevertheless, the anti-Catholic English Penal Laws were applied to Catholics in Maryland from 1652-1660 and from 1689 until nearly one hundred years later. Of all the original thirteen English colonies, Pennsylvania had the least severe laws against Catholics.
Myth #17: The slave trade began, and was first legalized, in Southern colonies.
Myth #18: By 1700, the entire east coast of America had English (Protestant) settlements and colonies.
Myth #19: In the early 1700s, the (Protestant) Governor of South Carolina, James Moore, fought against and defeated the savage Indians who had been raiding and attacking the colony.
Myth #20: In 1732, James Oglethorpe began the first civilized settlement in today's Georgia.
Myth #21: The "French and Indian War" was fought to stop the greedy (Catholic) French and savage Indians from taking territory that was rightfully claimed by the (Protestant) English.
1. In the early 1700s, during one of the conflicts between the French and English that led up to the war, the English governor of New Hampshire proclaimed that all (French) Roman Catholics were to be made prisoners of war, even if they were not fighting. He enforced this proclamation even though the French Protestants –the Huguenots- were permitted to remain undisturbed. Thus, the conflict was not simply between the French and English, but one of Protestant hatred for the Catholic religion.
Myth #22: During the moments that led up to the start of the American Revolution, the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, were courageous patriots who stood up against the tyranny of the British government and its soldiers.
Myth #23: The American Revolution was fought to establish freedom and gain independence from a repressive and tyrannical British monarch.
2. The second primary reason: In 1774, King George III signed a law granting religious freedom (or toleration) to Catholics in territories formerly ruled by the French. It was known as the Quebec Act, and included not only parts of Canada, but also what is now Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, northern Ohio, northern Maine, and Wisconsin (which American colonial leaders felt belonged to them). This Act gave Catholics in those territories the right to "have, hold, and enjoy the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome." Such rights were never granted by law in the (Protestant) English colonies of America.
The Catholic Faith was not simply rejected by all non-Catholic colonists, it was despised and hated by most. The general attitude at that time towards Catholics and the Catholic religion was reflected in a 1763 tract entitled: "The Expediency of Securing Our American Colonies." In this tract the governments of the different colonies were advised:
*Alexander Hamilton wrote: "they may as well establish Popery in New York and the other colonies as they did in Canada. They had no more right to do it there than here. Your lives, your property, your religion are all at stake." (Remember "Canada" at the time included northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.)
This last quote reveals that the Act of granting freedom to the practice of the Catholic religion was considered the greatest of the "intolerable acts" (as stated in the Declaration of Independence) supposedly committed by King George III. Yet all these quotes reveal that they thought their property and lives (Hamilton) and their "civil rights and liberties" (Suffolk Resolve) were all threatened when Catholics were allowed to practice their Faith. Clearly, the revolt of the American Colonies, at least in the minds of its leaders, was against both political and religious authority, particularly the hierarchical -monarchy and Catholicism. The attitude of equating monarchy with Catholicism (and rightfully so) was expressed by Thomas Paine in his popular work, "Common Sense," whereby he denounced monarchy as "the popery of government."
Myth #24: Nearly all the colonists supported the revolution against England and her king.
Those colonists who remained loyal to the King were known as "Loyalists" (or Tories, after those in England who supported the monarchy against parliamentary control). Many Catholics of the colonies (not influenced by the false "enlightenment") were Loyalists. The families of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her (future) husband were Loyalists. There were Loyalists in both the North and the South (though most were in the South). Loyalists refused to approve or take part in these early rebellions by the colonists. They refused to take up arms against the King, which even the 1775 Continental Congress recognize as their “rightful sovereign.” They believed it would be immoral to take up arms against their King, who was the lawful authority over them.
Both Maryland and Pennsylvania had organized regiments of Catholic Loyalists who fought on the British side against the rebelling colonists. Every state had a Loyalist center. Throughout the colonies the King also was popular among both slave and free blacks. Interestingly, the Governors of such northern states as New Hampshire (John Wentworth) and Massachusetts (Thomas Hutchinson) were Loyalists, and their lives were often in danger. Ben Franklin’s son, William, stayed loyal and he was the Royal governor of New Jersey. He was eventually thrown into prison, as were other conlonial leaders who were loyalists, or suspected of such. By what authority were they unjustly imprisoned is anyone's guess, but this shows that the usurpation of powers is inseprarable from revolution.
Though not considered Loyalists as such, a number of Indian tribes, including the Cherokee and Creek, sided with the British. This makes sense since the American colonists had been violently forcing the Indians off their lands for a century and a half and there had been nothing but conflicts between the two. It should also be remembered that King George III had passed laws favorable to the Indians by decreeing that white settlers could not settle on their lands. The Indians viewed the king as a friend.
Acts committed against Loyalists by the pro-revolutionary colonists were often cruel and relentless. One of the missions of the Sons of Liberty, mentioned above (Myth, #22), was to terrorize Loyalists into submission. They could rightly be called “colonial terrorists.” These acts by the rebels included the seizing of arms, the burning of homes and property, and sometimes even murder. In the end, most Loyalists were driven out of the thirteen colonies, and the rebelling colonists seized their homes and lands. Many, like the Scottish Catholics of upper New York, fled to Canada for safety, while others stayed and fought on the British side. Thus, the American Revolution could just as accurately be called a civil war within the American colonies.
Go to Part 3 of "U.S. History Myth Busters"
Myth #13: The Pilgrims celebrated the First Thanksgiving in America in the Autumn of 1621.
Fact: The first Thanksgiving in America was actually celebrated in 1541, and again in 1598, in New Mexico by Spanish-Catholics and Indian converts to the Faith. With each of these events they thanked the Lord for bringing them through many difficulties: first, by offering in thanksgiving the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, second, with great feasts of thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving of 1598 is still commemorated and celebrated every April 30 in San Juan, New Mexico. Different still were the natures of the celebrations. The earlier and Catholic ones were religious/spiritual in nature; the later Pilgrim one was more of a harvest feast/celebration. However, because of the anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish bigotry of English Protestants (whose texts dominated the American educational system for nearly two centuries), generations of Americans have never learned these facts of our history.
Proof: See the Tower of David article The Real First Thanksgiving, for all the details.
Fact: The Puritans engaged in the very thing for which they left England: they persecuted and even killed those who believed and practiced religion differently than they; and they also held and sold slaves. For brevity sake we will list just two examples: In 1628, the Puritans sent a military column from Plymouth to attack and destroy the "Merry Mount" settlement (Mount Wollaston, some miles north of Plymouth). They did this simply because those who settled there -another group of English separatists- believed and worshipped differently than did the Puritans. Some of the Merry Mount settlers were killed, the rest were forced back to England. They also persecuted and attacked members of the Quaker religion, killing a number of individuals in the process.
In 1658, the Puritan-led county court at Salem sold two children whose parents were found "guilty" for attending a Quaker meeting and were imprisoned after receiving a public whipping. The two children were sold into slavery in Barbados (governed by Protestant Britain). Thus we have Puritans who sold white children into slavery! (The Puritans also were the first to sell into slavery North American Indians who were captured and then shipped to places like Bermuda and Barbados.) One last fact suppressed in our history books: the "freedom loving" Pilgrims brought over with them on the Mayflower twelve WHITE slaves!
Fact: The first European communities in America were Catholic ones: the Prince Henry St. Clair settlement of 1398 in today's Newport, Rhode Island, San Miguel de Guadelupe in the Carolinas in 1526, Santa Cruz Mission in Alabama in 1559, Pensacola in Florida in 1559, and St. Augustine in Florida in 1565; ALL, as one can see, were before even the failed Roanoke settlement. In fact, after the St. Augustine, FL, settlement (1565), yet before Jamestown, VA was established (1607), there were more than forty more Catholic settlements established in what would become the continental United States. (For details see the following:
Fact: Though at first there were no laws prohibiting the practice of the Catholic Faith as the other colonies had in force, there were from the beginning laws restricting how the Faith was to be practiced. For example, the first Proprietor of the Maryland Colony, Cecil Calvert, laid down as law in 1634 that Catholics were to: "suffer no scandal nor offence to be given to any of the Protestants, whereby any just complaint may hereafter be made by them... and that for that end, all acts of the Roman Catholique religion [are] to be done as privately as may be, and that they instruct all Roman Catholiques to be silent upon all occasions of discourse concerning matters of religion..."
Fact: Though the first slaves were brought to a Southern colony (Jamestown: white slaves in 1609, blacks in 1619), the Jamestown settlers did not sell and trade slaves. The slave trade began in the Northern colony of Massachusetts, and it was the first colony to pass laws concerning slavery (viz. pro-slavery laws). Thus, the slave trade and laws concerning slave ownership in the American colonies first occurred in a Northern colony.
Fact: By that time, neither Georgia nor Florida were yet settled by the English. Whereas, by 1700, in these two future states alone more than 80 Catholic mission/settlements serving more than 40,000 Christian Indian converts had been established.
Fact: Governor Moore in fact first invaded and attacked numerous Catholic missions to the Indians in both Georgia and South Carolina. Catholic Spaniards and Indian converts already had more than thirty settlements established before English Protestants began to settle either Georgia (1732) or South Carolina (1670). Moore and his men on numerous campaigns brutally murdered missionary priests, friars, and Christian Indian converts (including women and children). He then made slaves of thousands of Catholic and civilized Indians. All this was done out of pure hatred towards the Catholic Faith. (For more details click to the Tower of David article Catholics: The First to Settle in Georgia and the Carolinas from the US Catholic History page.)
Fact: Spanish Catholics had already established more than thirty (30!) missions or mission/settlements in what is now Georgia by 1732 (more than twenty were already established before the Pilgrims landed in 1620!). Oglethorpe, in fact, attacked and destroyed numerous Catholic mission/settlements in Georgia in the 1740s, killing both missionaries and Indian converts, as well as capturing many hundreds of Christian Indians and selling them into forced slave-labor to Protestant plantation owners in the Carolinas and Virginia. This murderer and enslaver of civilized Christian Indians was a Freemason. He was the first "Worshipful Master" of the King Solomon Lodge #1 in Savannah, Georgia. He was thus an enemy to Christ's kingdom on earth.
Fact: The disputes over territory did not begin until the English coveted the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains, particularly the Ohio valley region, and attempted to both claim it for themselves and settle it. They had no right to do so since the French had explored, claimed, and occupied those lands -and peacefully co-existed with the Indians- long before any English came across the mountains. The war more appropriately should be known by what the (Catholic) French called it: the War of English Aggression.
This war also was not simply a war between the English and French over territory as the establishment texts and media portray it to be. It was a war that determined the "soul of America," because the Protestant English could not tolerate being surrounded from the North, the West, and the South by a Catholic presence. In other words, though not properly a religious war so called, it had strong religious (anti-Catholic) undercurrents. Thus, hatred for the Catholic religion was one of the main causes. Here are some proofs of this:
2. In the mid-1750s, French Catholics in Acadia (Nova Scotia) were forced by some 3000 English militia from New England to choose to either renounce their Catholic Faith and loyalty to the French king if they wanted to remain living there, or face forced expulsion and exile. Well, ninety-nine percent chose exile instead of denying the True Faith. After being forced to watch the burning of their homes, they were rounded up and put aboard ships destined for the colonies. After landing in certain ports, fathers were often separated from their families and forced into slave labor in the (Protestant) English colonies. Many children were separated from their parents and never saw them again. Many died on the ships en route to the Southern colonies for lack of sufficient food and clothing. Over-all some 7000 of these Acadian Catholics were uprooted and left penniless. A large number of these displaced Acadians reached Louisiana, and their descendants, who still live there, are called "Cajuns." By the way, the French Protestants living in Acadia were left undisturbed. The tragic story of what the English Protestants of the Colonies did to the Acadian Catholics can be read in the well-known poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline.
Fact: The members of the group known as the "Sons of Liberty" were all members of different Masonic lodges. These men were revolutionaries against the social kingship of Christ, His established order in society, and how it was represented in monarchies. Essentially the "Sons of Liberty" was a group of Freemasons who planned, organized, and started riots and commited acts of terrorism. (Including the so-called "Boston Massacre": see U. S. History Myth Busters 3, Myth #25, "The Boston Massacre", for suppressed details.) They would threaten those who were not with them -that is, with their revolt against the established authority. The Sons of Liberty burned down numerous homes and destroyed property of those colonists who did not join them in rebelling against England and her king. They even resorted to killing a few fellow colonists. The fact is, the Sons of Liberty could be called the first organized terrorist group in America!
Fact: The American Revolution was fought not because the King of England (George III) was tyrannical and repressive, as the revolutionaries proposed, but: 1a) to apply the radical ideas of the so-called "Enlightenment" in the political realm (the "Great American Experiment" -self-government), 1b) and these ideas were greatly propagated by Freemasons, and King George III was not at all friendly with Freemasonry (since it worked to undermine monarchies) and, 2) to stop the spread of Catholicism and its influence in America which practice was granted by law by King George III. These were the two primary reasons, and we will briefly look at each.
Proof: 1a. The so-called "Enlightenment" produced ideas contrary to the traditional (and God-ordained) form of governing authority, and this form is hierarchical in nature, to which monarchies best reflect and embody. Christ taught us to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and Heaven is a kingdom -Thy kingdom come (cf.Matt. 6:10) So, to do God's will on earth, Christian societies had always been structured as kingdoms (so had pagan ones for that matter). As God has revealed, ALL authority & power come from God above and is passed down through His representatives -whether civil or religious (see Rom.13:1-2; John 19:11). But the new ideas put forth by those who held to the so-called "Enlightenment" rejected these, and other truths. They held (as most people today now presume) that authority comes from the people (i.e. from below, not from above). Thus, they thought that governments should be by the people and of the people, for they presumed that all authority resided in the people. This, of course, is what is meant by the "Great American Experiment," i.e., self-government. All of the colonial leaders to a man held these and other revolutionary (anti-traditional) ideas. Therefore, they rejected monarchy altogether, and would have eventually revolted against King George whether he was good or not. (They just needed some excuses to justify their revolt to the world at large.)
1b. Now, the greatest promoters of the revolutionary ideas born of the so-called "Enlightenment" were Freemasons -the very enemies of Christ and His Kingdom on earth (who thus despised monarchy in the first place). Many of the colonial leaders were Masons, and those who were not, nevertheless, held and promoted the revolutionary ideas championed by Masons. King George III was not at all friendly with Masons, and in fact had ordered a few Masonic lodges in England to close. This was another motivation for the colonial leaders to ignite the flames of revolution.
"chiefly, to search out, with rewards for discovery, and make public examples of those plagues of society, disturbers of mankind - whatever Jesuits, Monks, Priests, etc., can be apprehended anywhere throughout the whole country eastward from the Mississippi and Iberville."
Clearly, the Roman Catholic Faith was despised, and even feared. Numerous papers around the Colonies reacted with anger to the Quebec Act. One New England paper declared, "Papists will soon take over." Another newspaper article stated that the colonies were now: "surrounded by enemies; a popish French government set up for the express purpose of destroying our liberties" (Pennsylvania Packet, September 26, 1774)
Riots occurred throughout New England and New York over the Quebec Act. Flags were raised in New York with the words "No Popery." Some revolutionaries even accused King George, who was Protestant, of being "a Roman Catholic tyrant." Many thought that something had to be done about these Acts which allowed the practice of Catholicism. It was the Quebec Act of granting freedom to Catholics to practice their religion that was the immediate (or final) motivating cause which resulted in the First Continental Congress in September, 1774.
At this meeting of the colonial leaders we learn why the colonies were about to revolt against England. One of the first resolutions passed by the First Continental Congress was in direct response to the freedom granted Catholics by King George III. Known as the Suffolk Resolve, it stated that religious freedom for Catholics was: "dangerous in an extreme degree to the Protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all Americans: and therefore we are obligated to take all proper measures for our security."
Notice the extreme fear and detestation the leaders had concerning the Catholic religion. To "take all proper measures for security" meant to prepare to rebel and take up arms against England and her king. The resolve also reveals that Catholic citizens of the colonies were not considered real Americans ("dangerous in an extreme degree to... the liberties of ALL Americans"). The Resolves also reveal that religion, as much as economics (i.e., financial losses resulting from taxation) was a primary motivating force behind the First Continental Congress.
There are numerous other examples of how specific colonial leaders viewed (and detested) the Holy Catholic Faith. Their reactions to the Quebec Acts are quite revealing.
*John Adams called Catholics "rascally papists" who were both "poor wretches" and "bewitched."
*Benjamin Franklin said that the "Roman religion" was a "menace" to their liberties.
*Thomas Jefferson's letters are filled with anti-Catholic language, for example: he called the Catholic Faith a "monkish superstition," and refered to the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the priesthood as "priestcraft" (as in similar to "witchcraft").
*Samuel Adams declared: "Popery is a far greater threat than the Stamp Act or trade acts."
The "great American experiment" is a rejection of the truth that there is an authority outside of oneself, or that authority comes from above and thus is above the people - hence the "experiment" of self-government. But this is a rejection of God's designed order and truth: All power/authority comes from God above, not from the people below (see Romans 13:1-2; John 19:11). Since all authority in Heaven and on earth belongs to Christ (Matt.28:18), who has authority over ALL mankind (Jn.17:2), and where ALL things are subjected to Him (Eph.1:20-22), then all men, and thus states and governments, must acknowledge the Kingship of Christ. The American Revolution was a de facto rejection of this truth.
It needs to be recognized that, when seen in light of the war between the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of Christ on earth (as all history should be seen), the anti-Catholic sentiments of the colonial leaders and many in the colonies becomes more prominent as a cause of the Revolution, even more so when one understands the ideas of the so-called "Enlightenment" as being contrary to both Divine Revelation and the Christian social and moral order.
Fact: Actually, only a third of the colonists were committed to the revolution, while a third were against it, and the other third were not sure. Thus, it was not a clear majority committed to the revolution. As late as 1780 there were some 8,000 known American colonists who not only refused to revolt and take up arms against their rightful sovereign, but took arms to defend the King and fight the revolt; yet there were only one thousand more who fought for General Washington and the revolutionary cause at the time.
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