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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

A Century of Presbyterian Response to Immigrants

January 14, 2016

The Presbyterian Historical Society is a major repository of stories related to the settling of the United States. Since the 1850s it has shared the stories of immigrant peoples who have entered this country, as well as the ongoing saga of Presbyterian engagement with the human rights struggles for an open and democratic U.S. society. In this election year, when immigration has become a central issue in our national discourse, it seems fitting that we should revisit our historical tradition of providing safe boundaries for refugees fleeing war and political oppression.

As many U.S....

Author: 
Guest Blogger
Tags: 
American History, Immigration, Poethig
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Notes on First Presbyterians in the American Colonies

November 13, 2015

In seminary and graduate school, I was taught that the first North American Presbyterians were part of the Puritan immigration that began in the 1620s in Massachusetts and soon spread to other portions of New England, especially Connecticut. The Puritans who peopled New England were usually contrasted with the “Cavaliers” who populated Tidewater Virginia.

Subsequently, I learned that the Puritan movement was a far more variegated and

...
Tags: 
American History, Early Presbyterianism, Immigration
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The Jan Hus Gavel

October 12, 2015
 
The Presbyterian Historical Society holds a treasure trove of stories you can read on paper, including pastor diaries, church minutes, and rare library books. Other stories lie hidden inside objects from our museum collection. 
 
In anticipation of this year’s Reformation Sunday, we’d like to tell you about one such object--a 400-year-old gavel with a history of ownership just as interesting as the materials it was made from.
 
On January...
Author: 
Deana S
Tags: 
Foundations of the Faith, Reformation Sunday, Collections, Immigration
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Samuel Davies, Patrick Henry, and the Gospel of Liberty

August 18, 2015

In a presentation given as part of the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation Lecture Series, Dr. Jan Swearingen explored how Presbyterian theology and rhetoric informed the actions of Presbyterian leaders in Virginia and throughout Colonial America. We are pleased to share these excerpts from "Presbyterians in Virginia 1740-1770: Samuel Davies, Patrick Henry, and the Gospel of Liberty."

The Reverend Samuel Davies (1723-1761), original print, RG414. Item No....
Author: 
Sam
Tags: 
Early Presbyterianism, American History, Immigration
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Ten Migrant Summers

July 25, 2014
 
While young Presbyterians of the 1950s and 1960s went to summer camp, Mexican-American children went to migrant laborers' camps in their midst.
 
In spring whole families moved, in trucks with wooden sideboards, tarps covering them and possessions, up from the Rio Grande Valley, to Arkansas to pick cotton, to New Mexico to pick onions, to Indiana to pick cucumbers. Alongside them went...
Author: 
David S
Tags: 
Immigration, Summer, American History
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