This chapter attempts to enter into the ongoing debate over Calvinism’s place in the politics of
the American Revolution by considering, in the persons of Phillis Wheatley and Lemuel Haynes, the black Calvinist tradition as generative of a distinctive theo-political imagination. Taking as its focus the thematics of providence and liberty, this chapter argues that black Calvinists in the Revolutionary period possessed a more sober, self-critical outlook on divine providence and a more comprehensive, consistent spirit of liberty than many of their Anglo counterparts. Wheatley and Haynes evidenced a critical patriotism and commended an aspirational vision of nation building that had as its hope the full humanity and equality of all people. Their cautionary theo-politics anticipated future national tensions, the implications of which continue to be felt today.

Typically, when one thinks of the category of racial segregation in the United States, the
historical references that come to mind orient around its de jure and de facto representations in what is commonly referred to as the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. In addition to Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, landmark Supreme Court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) help us periodize the trials and triumphs of our collective, national memory. However, it is important to understand that legal doctrines like “separate but equal” emerged from a distinctive religio-racial history, replete with its own set of theological doctrines that both informed and animated public life. This relationship between the theological, political, and racial can be seen from the nation’s earliest days. With a particular focus on Protestants, this chapter traces the seeds of Sunday morning segregation from the Revolutionary period through the Post-Reconstruction Era, exposing the befouling effects of white supremacist ideology and racial hierarchy on the church in America.