“How Henry Alline and the Great Awakening affected Nova Scotian’s opinions towards the war”;
The existing historiography on this topic focuses on various political and military complications as the leading cause of Nova Scotian neutrality in the War of Independence, but there was something else going on at the time that was arguably more important than these. This extremely important event had transformed the people of Nova Scotia ideologically, religiously, and politically; this event also fundamentally changed the identity of Nova Scotians in a relatively short period, and resulted in their decision to not rebel against British authority. This event was the Great Awakening in Nova Scotia, starting around 1776 and continuing through the late 1780s, led by the charismatic visionary Henry Alline. It was this great religious revival in Nova Scotia that changed the Nova Scotian identity and ultimately was the foremost factor in Nova Scotia’s decision of neutrality.
To understand how Henry Alline and the Great Awakening affected Nova Scotian’s opinions towards the war, it is imperative to understand how Alline founded his interpretation of the bible and where he situated himself in the Christian church. Alline had new ideas for how Nova Scotians should connect with the church, and he believed that the Puritan church, which dominated New England and Nova Scotia in the preceding one hundred years, had deviated strongly from the ideals of the Protestant Reformation. Alline was born into an old New England family tracing its roots back to the arrivals on the Mayflower, Alline was the second born, and first son, of eight children to a farming family that came up from Rhode Island and settled in the Falmouth, Nova Scotia farming region. But even before the family had moved to Nova Scotia, Alline had been “moved upon by the spirit of God” and had passed several stages along the traditional New England road to conversion.
His family were part of the Puritan church in his childhood, but when they relocated to Nova Scotia, there were no active churches in the area. This left Alline to learn of God and of Christianity essentially on his own initiative. Per J.M. Bumsted, Alline had a higher-level intellect then most; and his life might have turned out much different if he had received a formal education. However, as it was for the Alline family, “the isolation and poverty characteristic of rural Nova Scotia meant that there were no local religious, cultural, or educational institutions which might have offered the young man some opportunities for cultivating his natural intellectual gifts.” So instead, Alline studied on his own, reading “many experiences and accounts of a work of grace in the souls of others” in the popular devotional literature then available to a pioneer population such as Falmouth. However, in March 1776, Alline experienced a profound spiritual crisis and conversion. It was this traumatic religious experience that compelled Alline to share with others his ideas of how a new relationship with God for everyone was needed to achieve definitive salvation.
For many years Alline wrestled constantly with his soul and with his religious convictions; before the age of 28 Alline read up on and experimented with the teachings of notable authors such as Edward Young, John Fletcher, Martin Luther, and perhaps even Jacob Boehme. All of these religious authors were considered to be the most influential in the protestant movement in Britain, and Alline eventually came to believe that he should be this next great author of his time. Then, in March 1776 at the age of 28, Alline had a major religious experience, “one that would turn his life around and propel him into his evangelical ministry.” It was this traumatic religious experience that compelled Alline to share with others his ideas of a new relationship with God. The main message that Alline claimed to have learned from God was that people must immediately recognize the danger to one’s soul, and that they need a ‘new birth’. According to Bumsted, most of his audience understood this message, although frequently in a rather simplistic form. One listener of Alline’s explained that, “…Alline was a “New Light” and that the “New light” were the people of God for they were Christians and that none could go to Heaven unless they were converted.”
Alline became so popular within towns, that people began to forsake their own ministers to hear Alline preach. A document written by one of the members of the church in Yarmouth in 1776, illustrates this point further, “…And the religious influence that accompanied his preaching in different places, was said to be very great; and by some, was called a great Reformation! It was so represented concerning Argyle and Liverpool, the latter of which towns so generally embraced Mr. Alline’s preaching, that they forsook their own Minister, Rev. Mr. Israel Cheever!” This recorded document recorded the eye-witnessed events at Yarmouth in the early period of Alline’s teaching, giving us a clear picture of how much of an influence Alline had on individuals. It reads, “And a considerable number were religiously impressed and became very zealous and fervent. With much zeal and confidence, they asserted that he was sent of God, and that his works were a full proof and evidence of it.” So while Alline’s influence was clearly growing, it is important to remember that the Yankees living in Nova Scotia turned to religious rather than political figures in their search for guidance on the many distressing problems produced by the war. Rather than listen to the ruling political leaders, like the governor of Nova Scotia Governor Legge, they wanted to get their information from a religious leader; this is exactly how Alline was able to garner so much influence over these New Englanders living in Nova Scotia.
Before Alline began spreading his word in Nova Scotia, he first attempted to travel to New England, which held the higher education he lacked and hoped to achieve. The vessel he intended to sail on was seized by privateers, and while waiting for another ship he received word that his family had caught smallpox, so he returned home to Falmouth. When, in 1775, the government decided to call up the provincial militia under general Henry Denny Denson, Nova Scotians were forced to a conscious decision on their position vis-à-vis the war, Alline was asked by officers to “put in for a commission.” According to his personal journal, he rejected the offer on the grounds that he believed his only commission should be one, “from heaven to go forth, and enlist my fellow-mortals to fight under the banners of King Jesus.” On April 19th, 1776, the first anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, Alline made his final decision to preach, and felt free to offer what he had found for himself: a spiritual assurance which rejected and even transcended the tribulations of the secular world, whether it be British or American. It was a message unmistakably Nova Scotian in its emphasis; Alline believed that Nova Scotians had a special mission to spread ideas of nonaggression under the eyes of God. This was how Alline transformed the identity of the population from New Englanders living in Nova Scotia to them being distinctively Nova Scotian.
By the late 1770s, Henry Alline had reached an unprecedented popularity in nearly all the settlements, including the very influential town of Halifax. He was the undisputed leader of a major religious revival in Nova Scotia, and to a lesser extent, New Brunswick. His messages struck hard and deep into the hearts and minds of Nova Scotia Yankees; Alline claimed to understand what the people were going through, and accepted the truthfulness of the pains on them by the American Revolution. He explained the significance of the colony’s predicament, which was that of widespread confusion throughout Nova Scotia. New Englanders didn’t know how they were meant to feel about ongoing proceedings in the war, especially because the Americans were winning! Nova Scotian’s were doubtful, discouraged, pessimistic, and confused about remaining in the British Empire. Meanwhile, Alline’s message was confident, assertive, and optimistic, and in their critical situation the people turned to him for reassurance, explanations, and solutions through God.
The Great Awakening and the American revolution were very clearly related phenomena in Nova Scotia. The Maritimes were ripe for revival even before the Battles of Lexington and Concord. As a newly settled area, the Maritimes naturally experienced economic difficulties, some regions less than others. The agitation, unrest, and dislocation produced by the Revolution contributed to the reaction of many in the province of Nova Scotia, especially to the evangelical message preached by Henry Alline and those who followed him. Nova Scotians hailing from New England also had strong reasons for being favourably disposed to the phenomenon, because almost everyone brought up in New England at the time had learned from childhood of the importance of an experience of conversion- as had Henry himself. In fact, Alline’s religious thought was based off of the same conceptual framework and his rhetoric was very similar to that of many Evangelical preachers in New England in the late 1730’s and 1740’s. Professor Alan Heimert has brilliantly described how Jonathan Edwards, the outstanding eighteenth-century New England preacher regarded the ideas of a “New Birth”, whereas people can achieve “divine excellency” through a new inner harmony achieved through this conversion.
In a sense, Alline and Edwards both pursued a perception of the bible that was called the “evangelical version of the pursuit of happiness.” The Evangelical heaven was not an abode in the heavens but was to be experienced on Earth- in New England or in Nova Scotia. Alline frequently attacked what he called “mercenary Christians “, who felt that conversion was merely a guarantee of happiness in the after-life and instead emphasized that the true Christian enjoyed “a heaven on Earth.” Thus, Alline and Edwards’ doctrine of living out heaven in this lifetime, on this Earth, is how he decided that a revolutionary war was not a Godly act because it would destroy the peace and inner harmony that God had gave us.
Nonetheless, Bumsted says that the coming of the revolution greatly weakened the grip which organized religion had on Nova Scotia. Anglican missionaries withdrew from service in most areas of Nova Scotia at the outbreak of hostilities, and thus the area was bereft of spiritual leadership. The itinerant evangelical activities of Henry Alline and his disciples were ideally designed to fill this spiritual vacuum. Furthermore, in his sermons, Alline propagated the view that the New England colonies were wrong to indulge in war and urged the Yankees to see that they had performed a salutary act by staying out of such illegal and sinful undertakings. According to Alline, “War is a sad consequence of the Fall of man and his subsequent apostasy.” Furthermore, Alline told his followers that a man was sinful and living in a disordered world when he indulged in wars. When man pursued revolutionary acts in his own colony, he was letting loose even more sin into the world and his own life, and this in turn produced even great disorders in the world. The revival in Nova Scotia did not distract the people from sympathy with the American rebellion, but it served as an emotional and spiritual outlet for those who had friends and family fighting in the revolution. It perhaps also helped produce a primitive form of local patriotism based upon the uniqueness of Nova Scotia’s “mission” in North America. This mission, Alline believed, was to promote individualism and spirituality in North America without violence or revolutionary activity. By spreading his ideas of pacifism in Nova Scotia, Alline was purposely creating a shared undertaking for which all Yankees in Nova Scotia could unite behind. This mission would create a distinctive culture and identity in the years to come.