The American War of Independence: The 'Black Regiment', Old Testament Republicanism, and the Aitken Bible

I. Scope: The Biblical Architecture of the Revolution

While standard historiography frequently attributes the intellectual origins of the American Revolution to Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, Montesquieu, and Scottish moral realists, 18th-century colonial Americans were first and foremost a Bible-reading, sermon-hearing culture ^[1].

Between 1774 and 1783, over seventy percent of all printed material produced in the thirteen colonies consisted of religious sermons, theological pamphlets, and public fast-day discourses. The ideological justification for taking up arms against King George III required overcoming the traditional doctrine of passive obedience rooted in Romans 13:1–7 ('Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers'). Through a revolutionary synthesis of Old Testament covenant theology, Mosaic law, and New Testament Christian liberty, colonial preachers demonstrated that resisting tyranny was an act of sacred obedience to God (see Section III: The 'Black Regiment') ^[2].

II. Chronological Spine (1750–1783)

↑ Jump to: Scope | Black Regiment | Paine Exegesis | Bibliography

III. The 'Black Regiment' & Reinterpretation of Romans 13

British administrators and Loyalist commentators attributed the rebellion largely to the colonial clergy, whom Loyalists bitterly dubbed the 'Black Robed Regiment' (or simply the 'Black Regiment') because of their black clerical robes. Preachers like Jonathan Mayhew (Boston), Samuel West (Dartmouth), and John Witherspoon (Princeton president and signer of the Declaration) preached annual election sermons that dismantled Royalist absolutism ^[3]:

IV. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: 1 Samuel 8 and Idolatry

When Thomas Paine authored Common Sense in January 1776—which sold over 500,000 copies across a population of three million—he deliberately framed his case for independence not in abstract Enlightenment philosophy, but in Old Testament Hebraic republicanism ^[5].

Paine cited Gideon refusing the crown in Judges 8:23 ("I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you") and Samuel warning Israel against the extortion of kings in 1 Samuel 8:

"Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them... In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion... Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom."

V. The British Bible Embargo & Congressional Crisis (1777)

Prior to 1776, under British crown copyright law, printing the English Bible was strictly prohibited in the American colonies, reserving printing rights exclusively to the King's Printers in Oxford, Cambridge, and London. When the Revolutionary War broke out and the Royal Navy imposed a total maritime blockade, the transatlantic supply of English Bibles was completely severed ^[2].

By 1777, the shortage of Bibles for colonial schools, churches, and army camps had reached emergency proportions. On 11 September 1777, a congressional committee chaired by Dr. John Witherspoon reported to the Continental Congress that domestic printing type and paper were insufficient to produce an edition immediately. Congress responded by passing a historic resolution directing the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Holy Bible from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere at national expense.

VI. The Aitken Bible (1782): The 'Bible of the Revolution'

Faced with continuing wartime shortages, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken undertook the daring enterprise of setting and printing the complete English Bible on domestic brevier type in 1781–1782 ^[2].

In September 1782, following formal inspection by Congressional chaplains Rev. William White and Rev. George Duffield, the Continental Congress passed an official resolution endorsing Aitken's edition:

"Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled... highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken... and recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorise him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper."

The *Aitken Bible* remains the only edition of Holy Scripture in American history to receive official legislative endorsement and approval from the United States Congress.

VII. Exodus Typology: America as the New Israel

Throughout the Revolutionary War, colonial Americans interpreted their political struggle through the powerful lens of Exodus typology ^[4]. King George III was universally cast as Pharaoh, the British Parliament as taskmasters demanding bricks without straw, the Atlantic Ocean as the Red Sea, and George Washington as the American Moses leading God's covenant people through the wilderness of war into the Promised Land of constitutional liberty.

This typological conviction was so deeply embedded that in July 1776, when Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were appointed to design the Great Seal of the United States, Franklin proposed a scene depicting Pharaoh's army being swallowed by the Red Sea, while Jefferson proposed the children of Israel led by the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

VIII. Primary Sources & Selected Bibliography

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