Denominating a People: Congregational Laity, Church Disestablishment, and the Struggles of Denominationalism in Massachusetts, 1780-1865

Local sources of church history—historical societies, libraries, town halls, and church basements and vaults—reveal a new half to Congregational historiography. Within the churches themselves power shifted to the pews and the laity and clergy fractured. There was no small degree of chaos, and it inhibited Congregationalists from denominating themselves from other groups and from articulating what was the unity in their diversity. Using a comparative approach focusing on Barnstable and Berkshire counties, this program will interest Congregational scholars and other historians alike.