Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 4-15-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

May 2026

Department

History

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Jason Sharples

Abstract

In 1778, the newly independent government of South Carolina broke with more than a century of precedent and disestablished the Church of England by enacting Article XXXVIII of its State Constitution. This thesis weaves together the interconnected stories of Patriots such as William Tennent, Christopher Gadsden, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Oliver Hart, Richard Furman, and William Henry Drayton, demonstrating how they converged on disestablishment. While the historiography has focused on one or another religious or political group, this thesis asserts that an array of South Carolinians from across the political spectrum coalesced around disestablishment as a pragmatic solution to a variety of individual grievances. This thesis uses sermons, newspapers, and letters, along with archival manuscripts such as a travel journal, diaries, and the personal notes of Oliver Hart, to demonstrate that South Carolina achieved religious disestablishment through a coalition of Anglicans and Dissenters, united in the political goal of securing independence.

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