At this time of year, when we recall the formal founding of the United States, it is worth pondering the world which produced this nation. It was a time when the majority of the population did agricultural work, there were few factories, and very little public sanitation. Most roads were unpaved. Literacy was common at about 70% of the population, although in New England it was closer to 90%. Life expectancy was 35 years. Infant mortality was at about 25%, or about the same as it was in the time of Christ. Most people owned around three suits of clothing.

Gen. George Washington’s army carried an assortment of non-standardized weapons often made by village blacksmiths. The Revolutionary soldier’s average age was in the early 20s and 27% of them died in battle. Various unpleasant diseases stalked the land.

Seaports and coastlands provided work for both fishermen and merchants, particularly in New England. Approximately 500,000 people were of African descent, and of these 90% were enslaved. Married women had little control over property and finances, and whatever they did have often was controlled by their husbands.

Yet when it comes to religion, we find both a large diversity, and also considerable disagreement among historians. Some writers wish to downplay how religious people were in early America, arguing it was not a big deal. Other writers seem intent on proving that Americans in the early days were almost entirely devout Christian. The truth is more complicated.

Estimates of actual church membership range from about 10% to 80%. Eight of the 13 colonies had established churches, which were supported by taxes. The majority of people who were Christians in 1776 belonged to Presbyterian, Congregationalist or Episcopal Churches. Congregations averaged about 75 family units, although trained clergy were more scarce than in later years. The city of Boston in 1770 had a population of about 16,000 and was served by only 18 churches.

It would also be incorrect to say that simply because people belonged to the same church, they therefore agreed with one another.

Because of the Revolution, Episcopalians were divided between those who supported the Revolution and those loyal or at least sympathetic to the King’s Church. By way of example, George Washington was an Episcopalian, but the first bishop in the Episcopal Church was Samuel Seabury, who had served as a chaplain for the British Army in America.

For the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, there remained divisions on matters such as Sabbath observance. Should the Sabbath rest be required by law or was it a private matter? Should alcohol be forbidden on Sunday? And what was to be done with “dissenters” such as the Quakers or the Lutherans who rejected commonly held religious norms? Behind all of these debates lay two issues, one being state support of churches, and of course, the issue of slavery.

The largest objection to traditional churches came from the Deists, who professed the rationalist belief spread by the French Enlightenment that there was one God, who was understood by human reason and not revelation. The Deists held that God’s laws were observable in nature. Deism was very popular among the educated and it would influence many of our Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson.

After 1750, there was a massive immigration to the British colonies by Baptists, who were very seriously being persecuted in Europe. Many of these people landed in the colony of Virginia, where they suffered persecution again. The Baptists also landed in Maryland, which was another story altogether. Maryland had been founded in 1634 by Cecillius Calvert as a refuge for Catholics. At its beginning Maryland had established freedom of religion. This legislation was repealed when the Puritans gained a majority in the colonial legislature, and before long Baptists, Puritans and Catholics were all required to pay taxes to support churches.

While Christianity was certainly the largest religion at the time of the Revolution, nonetheless there were others.

At the time of the Revolution, the colony of Connecticut had a Jewish population of about 5,000, who were served by five synagogues. It has been estimated that between 15% and 30% of the West African people taken into slavery in the British Colonies in America and later the United States were Muslim. Any religion other than Christianity was suppressed by slave-owning landlords. Their numbers would be bolstered by immigration from Eastern Europe and elsewhere after the time of the Civil War.

There were exceptions to these religious situations. Rhode Island was founded by the refugee Roger Williams, when he was run out of Puritan New England and his colony instituted freedom of religion from the beginning. Pennsylvania had been founded by Quakers, and religious tolerance was established in law.

In 1680, King Charles II made a land grant and permission to begin a colony to William Penn, who resolved to make tolerance of faiths the law of the land. In 1681, he arrived in what is now Pennsylvania to begin what he called a “holy experiment” to bring into practice a number of Quaker ideals, including complete freedom of conscience in matters of religion, universal education for all young people, both male and female, a humane penal code and no state militia. Although the royal charter made Penn the absolute ruler of the land, he refused to take any land used by the Native Americans without their permission. And for all of these liberties, Penn’s only fee was to pay the King two beaver skins annually and 20% of any gold he discovered. Such liberties were copied by other authorities as the years went by, and in the opinion of this writer such freedoms were worth much more than two beaver skins.

Gregory Elder, a Redlands resident, is a professor emeritus of history and humanities at Moreno Valley College and a Roman Catholic priest. Write to him at Professing Faith, P.O. Box 8102, Redlands, CA 92375-1302, email him at gnyssa@verizon.net or follow him on Twitter @Fatherelder.