“To Abjure Popish Heresys”: Crafting a Borderlands Gospel during Queen Anne’s War at St. James Parish, South Carolina, 1701–20

Abstract

Abstract In 1706, local authorities institutionalized the Church of England in South Carolina hoping to bring Carolinian social practice into conformity with that of the metropole. Anglican missionaries worked to install religious instruction as a pillar of community identity in this contested space. Employing the specter of war and popery—and the associated fear of slave rebellion—helped ministers Samuel Thomas and Francis LeJau articulate a borderland-specific conception of race, place, and paternal responsibility in an aggressively expanding colony from 1701 to 1720. Utilizing correspondence surrounding the activities of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), this article asserts that rather than serving as a link to English society, the Anglican missions of the SPG functioned as an ideological space for creating a distinct regional identity. Thomas and LeJau crafted a community-specific application of Anglican beliefs, working out their conceptions of religious practice concerning the threats presented by Spanish attempts to secure the loyalty of Yamasees Indians and enslaved Africans. Understanding how fear operated in the southeastern borderlands provides a nuanced understanding of how colonialism operated in the southern colonies.