British Evangelicals and the United States of America, c. 1775-c.1820

Abstract

Just as British political attitudes towards the United States of America combined an ambivalent mix of admiration and mystification, so British Evangelical attitudes combined respect and a deep desire to associate and cooperate with American Evangelicals, with criticisms of American toleration of slavery, and some discomfort with the levels of religious and political diversity and disorder apparent in the new republic. Evangelicals were therefore to be found adding their voices to the conservative, liberal and radical positions in the British debate on the new United States of America. But their most distinctive contribution was their enthusiasm for cooperation with Americans in missionary enterprises inside and outside the United States. In this they added weight to the stance of those liberal politicians who viewed the United States as a force for good in the world and a natural ally for Britain, and who favoured a close Anglo-American relationship on the basis of shared values, despite their differences.