The Great Awakening P15

The Congregationalist minister Elisha Williams (1694-1755) was a schoolteacher. Connecticut State representative, judge, and president of Yale. Also greatly influenced by the Rev. George Whitefield, he was not only a chaplain of the New England's military forces during the French and Indian War but also became a colonel and led troops in the field.

In 1750, Congregationalist minister Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) preached the sermon, “Concerning Unlimited Submission,” reminding his listeners, and then its readers once the sermon was published, that rebellion against tyrants could be both Biblical and just. His sermon helped form the basis of an early motto of the American Revolution: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God,” which also became Thomas Jefferson’s personal motto. 

In 1765, the British passed the Stamp Act, which levied improper taxes on the colonists. Resistance in the colonies to that measure was widespread and organized, and Benjamin Franklin was sent to the royal court in England to argue against the measure. Under unified pressure from civil and religious leaders, the following year the Stamp Act was repealed.

The Stamp act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency.

Content sourced from The American Story, The Beginnings by Dave Barton & Tim Barton