The Black Robe Rebellion

Calvinist Clergy and the American War for Independence

Colonial Clergy and the Road to Revolution

In the years leading up to 1776, the pulpits of colonial America thundered with calls for liberty. Reformed Calvinistic ministers – many clad in the traditional black preaching robes – became pivotal agents in shaping public opinion against British tyranny. British officials took note of this influence. Contemporary observers (friend and foe alike) credited (or blamed) the Calvinist clergy for instigating the rebellion . One Loyalist writer argued the Revolution was driven by Presbyterians and Congregationalists whose religious and political principles ran contrary to monarchism . Indeed, King George III himself reportedly dismissed the uprising as a “Presbyterian Rebellion” . In British Parliament, it was not uncommon to hear the American War of Independence derided as “the Presbyterian Revolt,” reflecting the reality that Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches (both rooted in Reformed Calvinism) spearheaded the colonial “sedition” . For these ministers and their congregations, resisting royal oppression was not treason but a sacred duty – so much so that one British loyalist sneered at the influential clergy as a seditious “black Regiment,” referring to the black robes of the Calvinist preachers . Far from dissuading them, such labels only underscored how integral the ministry was in the coming of American independence.

Religious conviction had long predisposed these dissenting Protestants to distrust tyrannical authority. Many Reformed Christians in the colonies descended from forebears who had fled or fought state persecution – from the French Huguenots massacred in 1572, to Scottish Covenanters oppressed in the 1600s, to New England Puritans who had defied Stuart kings . This history left an indelible mark. As one scholar notes, generations of persecution taught Calvinist dissenters that when kings and parliaments set themselves against God’s laws and the rights of God’s people, then “rebellion [became] legitimate” . By the 18th century, most American Protestants outside the Anglican establishment shared an ideology of conditional loyalty: governmental authority was ordained by God for the public good, but a ruler who became a “terror to good works” rather than evil (cf. Romans 13:3) effectively forfeited divine sanction . Thus, the stage was set for conflict. The colonies’ dominant faith tradition – Reformed Protestantism – was, as British statesman Edmund Burke observed, “committed to the principle of resistance to arbitrary authority” . When King George III and Parliament infringed the traditional rights of the colonists, the Calvinist pastors stood ready to cry tyranny and rally God’s people to oppose it.

Pulpits of Revolution: Political Influence of the “Black Robe Regiment”

The collective influence of these clergy – later dubbed the “Black Robe Regiment” – on the Revolutionary cause is difficult to overstate. They were among “the most conspicuous, the most ardent, and the most influential” leaders in awakening the political sentiments that led to independence . Week after week, ministers wove political commentary into their sermons, exhorting their flocks to recognize and resist encroachments on God-given liberties. John Adams rejoiced in 1774 that “the pulpits thunder and lightning every Sabbath against [King] George[’s] despotism” . New England preachers especially were pivotal in stirring the outrage over British policies. Long before the average colonist grasped the threat to their liberties, pastors in the Congregational and Presbyterian churches were warning of tyranny from the pulpit . As one historian observed, without the early and vocal leadership of the churches, America “would be a British colony today” .

Crucially, these patriot-pastors were not mere rhetoricians; many took an active role in the political and military effort. A striking number of Revolutionary leaders were themselves ordained ministers or devout Calvinists. In New Jersey, the influential Presbyterian divine Rev. John Witherspoon openly advocated for independence from his Princeton pulpit – even before Congress declared it. Witherspoon assured his congregation (and later the Continental Congress) that opposing British tyranny was a just cause in God’s sight, and he put his pen where his pulpit was by signing the Declaration of Independence (the only clergyman to do so) . Other ministers served in colonial legislatures, local committees, and later in the new state governments, helping to frame the ideology of republican liberty in explicitly religious terms.

From the earliest days of armed conflict, pastors also provided practical leadership. In April 1775, when the first shots of the war rang out on Lexington green, Rev. Jonas Clark was there with rifle in hand. Clark, the longtime pastor of Lexington’s church, had spent years preparing his congregation for this very moment. When Paul Revere rode to town with news of approaching redcoats, he found Samuel Adams and John Hancock at Rev. Clark’s parsonage. The two statesmen asked if the local people would fight. Clark confidently replied, “I have trained them for this very hour!” . He was right – as the battle smoke cleared at Lexington, the American dead were found to be members of Clark’s flock. The first blood of the Revolution had been shed by men “from his congregation,” laying down their lives for a cause “promoted from his pulpit.” One year later, on the anniversary of Lexington, Rev. Clark preached that “from this day will be dated the liberty of the world” , underscoring his belief that the stand against Britain carried global significance for freedom.

Statue of Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg in the U.S. Capitol. Muhlenberg, a minister-turned-soldier, famously cast off his clerical robe to reveal a Continental Army uniform, exemplifying the clergymen who led by example in the Revolutionary War.

Another famous example was Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, a pastor of Lutheran upbringing (serving an Anglican parish in Virginia) who dramatically illustrated the ethos of the Black Robe Regiment. In early 1776 Muhlenberg preached a sermon on “a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3). Concluding, he declared to his congregation: “There is a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come!” . With that, Muhlenberg threw off his black clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Continental Army officer beneath. He had already been commissioned a colonel, and that very day he rallied 300 men from his church and community to join the 8th Virginia Regiment . Muhlenberg led these men as their commanding officer (later rising to the rank of general), fighting with valor throughout the war – from the Battle of Brandywine to Yorktown . His story, memorialized by a statue in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, symbolizes how literally some pastors embodied the call to both shepherd and soldier. They not only preached about resisting tyranny; they personally mustered men into the Continental forces and marched at their head.

Patriot clergy also sustained the war effort by ministering to the troops’ morale and conviction. Numerous ministers became chaplains in the Continental Army, sharing in the hardships of camp and battle. Men like William Emerson of Massachusetts (who was present at Concord in 1775), Philip Vickers Fithian of New Jersey, and Connecticut’s young Timothy Dwight (later Yale president) all served as chaplains, “slogging with the Patriot forces, preaching to them, and working to keep up both their religious and their political zeal.” Their presence reminded soldiers that the cause of independence was sanctioned by the Almighty and worth the sacrifice. In the throes of war, clergymen-turned-chaplains held prayer services, offered counsel and comfort, and exhorted the troops to courage. The British understood the power of these spiritual leaders to inspire resistance – so much so that invading redcoats often targeted patriot pastors and their meetinghouses for harsh treatment. When royal forces seized towns, they sought out the “agitators in black.” A number of ministers were arrested or even killed by the British for their role in the rebellion, and churches used for patriot meetings were burned . In one notorious incident, Rev. John Rosbrugh, a Presbyterian chaplain, was captured by Hessian troops during the 1777 campaign. Recognizing him as a minister, the mercenaries bayoneted him to death on the spot, stripping his body and leaving it in the snow . Such reprisals only strengthened the colonists’ resolve, confirming their view that they fought not only against political oppression but against an unholy assault on their faith and freedom.

By the war’s end, the intertwining of religious leadership and the military effort was apparent at the highest levels. It was observed that at the British surrender at Yorktown (1781), all but one of the American colonels on the field were elders of the Presbyterian Church . While perhaps apocryphal, this anecdote illustrates a broader truth: the Revolutionary ranks teemed with devout Calvinists, and the spiritual leaders of the community were often the military leaders as well . Little wonder that an early U.S. newspaper, lauding the patriotic clergy, recalled how these “truly patriotic [ministerial] clergy boldly and zealously stepped forth” in the crisis, seeing that “religious and civil liberties were inseparably connected” and rousing the people “resolutely to oppose and repel every hostile invader.” The “moral force” that won American independence, as one 19th-century historian concluded, was born in the Puritan and Presbyterian pulpits . Without the Black Robe Regiment, the American War for Independence might have failed for lack of ideological cohesion and popular will to resist.

Theology of Resistance: Calvinist Doctrine Against Tyranny

The political activism of the Revolutionary clergy did not arise from mere patriot fervor; it was deeply grounded in Reformed theology and biblical interpretation. Calvinistic ministers drew on a well-developed tradition of Protestant resistance theory reaching back over two centuries. Far from preaching anarchy, they articulated a conservative revolution doctrine – arguing that their defiance of Britain was in line with Scripture and Calvinist orthodoxy, not contrary to it . A key text was Romans 13:1–7, in which the Apostle Paul instructs Christians to be subject to governing authorities. While Loyalists read this as an absolute prohibition on rebellion, patriot preachers offered a nuanced exegesis. They noted that Paul describes the magistrate as “God’s servant for your good,” who “rewards good [and] punishes evil” (Rom. 13:4) . This, they argued, implies a moral limit on the duty of obedience: when a ruler ceases to fulfill the God-ordained mandate – when he becomes a “terror to good works” and a praise to evil (inverting Paul’s words) – then he is no longer acting as “the minister of God to thee for good.” In short, Romans 13 itself “builds in” limitations on obedience . Subjects are not bound to submit to a ruler who has fundamentally breached his covenant to govern justly. This interpretation, far from being an Enlightenment novelty, drew on a “long tradition of Reformed thinking on the duties of citizens and magistrates.”

New England pastor Jonathan Mayhew was an early voice shaping this perspective. In a famous 1750 sermon (marking the anniversary of King Charles I’s execution), Mayhew questioned the standard doctrine of unlimited submission. He asked pointedly whether Paul’s words might allow that “disobedience and resistance” to authorities are justifiable in certain extreme cases . Mayhew answered yes: a people might lawfully resist a ruler who destroys their fundamental rights. He reasoned that the “end of magistracy is the good of civil society” ; government derives its legitimacy from promoting the welfare of the people in accordance with God’s law. Therefore, obedience to magistrates is based not on blind loyalty but on the magistrate’s fulfillment of justice. When rulers become oppressive – when they “abdicate [their] duties to rule justly” – citizens may invoke a higher obligation to God and the public good . Mayhew and those who followed him (like Boston’s Rev. Samuel West, who preached a similar sermon in 1776) turned to both Scripture and history for support. They cited biblical precedents of faithful resistance: the Hebrew midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh’s murderous decree, Daniel refusing King Darius’s law, or the apostles defying the Sanhedrin with the declaration “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). They also pointed to the Old Testament concept that even Israel’s kings were under God’s law – for example, Deuteronomy 17 required a king to keep God’s covenant, and King Jehoiada deposed Queen Athaliah in order to restore lawful rule (2 Kings 11) . Thus, “righteous kings are bound by the law of God… and there are exceptions when a ruler has abdicated his duty”, freeing subjects from the normal obligation to obey . This covenantal view of civil authority became central to the American clergymen’s case for revolution.

Calvinist political doctrine had, in fact, anticipated these ideas long before 1776. Reformed leaders on the European continent and in Britain formulated a “lesser magistrate” theory: while private individuals should not foment chaos, magistrates of lower rank (or collective bodies like a parliament) could and should intervene against a higher ruler’s lawless acts. John Calvin himself hinted at this in his Institutes, and his spiritual heirs made it more explicit. The French Huguenots authored Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (1579), arguing that if a king violated God’s covenant and the people’s fundamental laws, faithful magistrates might lawfully resist him. Scottish Presbyterians under John Knox likewise held that because the nation is in covenant with God, egregious breaches by a king (akin to adultery in a marriage covenant) justified rebellion as an act of faithfulness . They famously declared “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” a motto that later found echo in America’s lexicon. By the time of England’s Glorious Revolution (1688), even Protestant clergy in England – many influenced by Calvinist theology – preached that King James II’s misrule warranted his ouster, framing it not as rebellion but as a “righteous defense” of the nation’s historic laws and liberties . The colonial preachers inherited all these theological arguments.

Rather than see themselves as rebels against authority per se, patriot ministers saw themselves as guardians of true law and order. They taught that God’s sovereignty stands above any earthly king, and that God-given rights cannot be abridged by royal fiat. Sermons drew analogies between biblical Israel and America, portraying the colonies as a covenanted people whom God had led to a new land. New England ministers in particular had long preached that civil liberty was part of God’s plan. As early as 1687, Massachusetts pastor Rev. John Wise wrote that “taxation without representation is tyranny,” foreshadowing the Revolutionary slogan . Wise argued for the consent of the governed and the equality of all men in the eyes of God – principles that would later ring out in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, several “glittering sentences” of the Declaration “are almost literal quotations” from John Wise’s writings of 1710 . Decades later, in 1775, the Presbyterian synod of Philadelphia and New York declared fast days and issued pastoral letters justifying armed resistance to British oppressions as a sacred cause. Such pronouncements invariably cited Scripture and Reformed doctrine to assure church members that in defending their liberties, they were obeying God. Far from rejecting Romans 13, patriot clergy claimed to fulfill it – insisting that by opposing a tyrant, they were siding with the true intent of God’s ordinance for civil government (the protection of justice and freedom) . Thus, in their view, loyalty to God could demand resistance to kings. The Black Robe Regiment’s battle cry was essentially a theological one: that Christ – not Caesar – is Lord of conscience, and no earthly ruler has the right to make law or demand obedience contrary to the law of God.

Pastor-Patriots: Notable and Lesser-Known Figures

The ranks of the Black Robe Regiment included both famous founders and unsung heroes. We have already met John Witherspoon, Jonas Clark, and John Peter Muhlenberg – each prominent in their sphere. Alongside them were scores of other clergy who fanned the flames of liberty. One was Rev. James Caldwell of New Jersey, a Presbyterian minister dubbed the “Fighting Parson.” Caldwell became legendary for his battlefield exploits supporting the Continental Army. When his hometown of Elizabethtown was threatened, he sent his family to safety and took up dual roles as chaplain and quartermaster for the New Jersey militia. During the Battle of Springfield (1780), Caldwell supplied a famous example of preacherly pluck. As the American defenders ran out of musket wadding (paper used to pack powder and ball), Caldwell rode to the Presbyterian church and grabbed armfuls of hymn books – collections of hymns by the revered Dr. Isaac Watts. Returning to the firing line, he tore the hymn pages and distributed them to the troops, shouting “Give ’em Watts, boys! Give ’em Watts!” . His clever battle-cry (a pun on “Give them wads”) heartened the men, who drove back the British assault. This moment, later immortalized in art and lore, epitomized how even worship was weaponized for the cause of freedom . Caldwell’s service came at great personal cost: his wife, Hannah, was tragically shot and killed by a British soldier during an earlier raid, making her a martyr-figure and rallying symbol for Patriots in New Jersey . Caldwell himself was later murdered by a sentry in 1781 under murky circumstances. The image of the pastor crying “Give ’em Watts!” while handing out hymn-pages to soldiers remains one of the Revolution’s most vivid anecdotes, encapsulating the fusion of faith and fight.

Another influential but lesser-known figure was Rev. John Wise of Massachusetts (mentioned above). Though he died in 1725, Wise’s writings on liberty, equality, and the social compact deeply influenced the American generation. So much so that one 19th-century historian noted that “some of the most glittering sentences” of Jefferson’s Declaration “are almost literal quotations” from John Wise’s essays . President Calvin Coolidge later affirmed that “the thoughts in the Declaration can very largely be traced back to what John Wise was writing in 1710.” This Congregationalist minister’s early 18th-century sermons against tyranny (originally directed at royal authorities in Boston) effectively “laid the intellectual basis for American Independence.” It is a testament to how the colonial clergy kept alive a doctrine of liberty across generations. Similarly, Rev. Jonathan Mayhew of Boston, though not alive to see the Revolution (he died in 1766), earned the title “The Father of Civil and Religious Liberty in Massachusetts” for his trailblazing preaching . His 1750 discourse on “Unlimited Submission” (or rather, the limits of submission) was reprinted and passed around as the conflict with Britain escalated . Mayhew’s bold exegesis of Romans 13 provided a theological lodestar to patriot leaders – one that linked Puritan covenant theology with Enlightenment-influenced republican ideas. John Adams noted that Mayhew’s sermon “was read by everybody” and did much to unsettle the colonists’ allegiance to King George.

Beyond New England, the Scots-Irish Presbyterian clergy played a formidable role, especially on the frontier and in the southern backcountry. Men like Rev. John Cuthbertson in Pennsylvania or Rev. David Caldwell in North Carolina (not related to James Caldwell) rallied the Scotch-Irish communities, who had a long-held animosity toward English rule. Their influence was so pronounced that a Hessian officer observed America was “a religious [as well as a political] war,” led by what he called the “black Regiment” of Presbyterian preachers . Many Presbyterian ministers in the South encouraged armed resistance despite the personal risks. For instance, Rev. Alexander Craighead, a fiery Mecklenburg County preacher, had been agitating for independence as early as the 1750s; his ideological legacy helped inspire the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration in North Carolina (a controversial precursor to the national Declaration). Rev. James Hall of North Carolina actually led a band of militia at the Battle of Kings Mountain (1780), a crucial patriot victory. In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Presbyterian dominies urged their young men to enlist en masse. And in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, numerous German- and Dutch-Reformed pastors – though sometimes divided in loyalty – lent their support. The Dutch Reformed clergy, such as Rev. John H. Livingston in New York, preached in the same key of liberty; many Dutch patriots saw parallels between their ancestors’ 16th-century rebellion against Catholic Spain and the American rebellion against Britain . The German Reformed (Calvinist) synod likewise generally endorsed the Continental Congress, though some pastors serving German immigrant communities had to overcome those settlers’ initial hesitance. Even a number of Lutheran ministers (not strictly “Reformed,” but Protestant allies) joined the cause – exemplified by Muhlenberg and also his brother Frederick Muhlenberg, another Lutheran minister who supported the patriot cause and later became the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives .

It is worth noting that not all ministers sided with independence. The Anglican (Episcopal) clergy, tied by oath to the King and supported by colonial establishment in several provinces, mostly remained Loyalist (with notable exceptions like Virginia’s pro-patriot Anglicans) . A few prominent Calvinist ministers also opposed the Revolution on theological grounds, fearing it violated New Testament teachings – but these were a minority. By and large, the “Reformed Protestant clergy supported the Revolution almost unanimously.” As historian Michael McConnell observes, Patriot preachers across denominational lines – Congregationalists, Presbyterians, German and Dutch Reformed, Baptists, and others – largely united in favor of independence, and “many observers at the time credited (or blamed) Reformed Protestantism for the Revolution.” This broad front included even groups beyond the English-speaking Calvinist fold: for example, French Huguenot descendants in America, such as John Jay (whose family were Huguenots), were staunch patriots; and Scots Presbyterian emigrants and their Ulster-Scots kin (the Scots-Irish) brought a particularly militant Protestant zeal to the patriot side . The cumulative contribution of these groups was a robust religious underwriting of the war effort. They provided soldiers, yes, but more critically they provided justification. Their sermons, prayers, and examples infused the American cause with an almost covenantal sense of purpose.

Conclusion: Faith in the Fight for Freedom

From the first protests against the Stamp Act to the victory at Yorktown, Reformed Christian ministers were at the forefront of America’s fight for independence – intellectually, politically, and militarily. These “Black Robe Regiment” pastors initiated rebellion by framing it not as lawless insurrection but as a righteous stand against tyranny, consistent with Scripture and Calvinist doctrine. They sustained the war by continuing to preach hope and perseverance, by serving on the battlefield as officers and chaplains, and by sacrificing alongside their congregants. The biblical cry of liberty against oppression – “proclaim liberty throughout the land” (Leviticus 25:10) – rang from their pulpits. In their view, they fought with “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon” (Judges 7:20) in one hand and a musket in the other. As a contemporary 1789 tribute affirmed, these “patriotic clergy boldly and zealously stepped forth” as “sentinels to watch and warn” the people, convinced that “our religious and civil liberties were inseparably connected” .

The legacy of the Black Robe Rebellion is a reminder that the American Revolution was not only a political and military event, but also a religious and moral enterprise. Calvinistic theology – with its insistence that no king is absolute except Christ – provided a ready framework for colonial resistance. The pastor-patriots taught their flocks that fighting tyranny was not a sin, but rather an obligation grounded in both natural rights and divine truth. Lesser-known heroes like John Rosbrugh, who died a martyr’s death at Hessian hands, and countless others who risked homes and livelihoods, deserve to be remembered alongside the famous founders. They proved the truth of Burke’s insight that religion, particularly the fiery Protestantism of the American frontier, was “a principle of energy” behind the Revolution . Without the Black Robe Regiment galvanizing hearts and minds, the war for independence might have lacked its animating spirit.

In summary, the Reformed ministers of colonial America furnished the Revolution with a moral compass and steadfast leadership. They preached into existence the very idea of America as “one nation under God” conceived in liberty . They forged a biblical justification for breaking the chains of oppression, teaching a people that obedience to God sometimes required disobedience to unjust men. And when the time came, they led by fearless example – from the meetinghouse to the battlefield. The American War for Independence, as even contemporaries acknowledged, was truly “conceived in the pulpit” . The Black Robe Regiment’s blend of political fervor and theological conviction ensured that the new United States would be born with freedom not only etched in its laws, but enshrined in its very soul.

Sources: Contemporary accounts, sermons, and historical analyses of the era, including those compiled by Al Maxey , scholarly reviews by Gary Steward , Michael McConnell’s research on religion in the Revolution , and various historical records and letters (John Adams, John Wingate Thornton, etc.) confirm the decisive role of Calvinist clergy in America’s founding drama. These pastor-patriots, the “Black Robe Regiment,” stand as a testament to how theology can impact history – how the “pulpit of the American Revolution” supplied the “moral force which won our independence.”