Description
From Nevis to Newfoundland, Catholics were everywhere in English America. But often feared and distrusted, they hid in plain sight, deftly obscuring themselves from the Protestant authorities. Their strategies of concealment, deception, and misdirection frustrated colonial census takers, and their presence has likewise eluded historians of religion, who have portrayed Catholics as isolated dots in an otherwise vast Protestant expanse.
Pushing against this long-standing narrative, Susan Juster provides the first comprehensive look at the lived experience of Catholics—whether Irish, African, French, or English—in colonial America. She reveals a vibrant community that, although often forced to conceal itself, maintained a rich sacramental life saturated with traditional devotional objects and structured by familiar rituals. As Juster shows, the unique pressures of colonial existence forced Catholics to adapt and transform these religious practices. By following the faithful into their homes and private chapels as they married, christened infants, buried loved ones, and prayed for their souls, Juster uncovers a confluence of European, African, and Indigenous spiritual traditions produced by American colonialism.
About The Author
Susan Juster is W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research at the Huntington Library.
Reviews
“Through imaginative and assiduous research, Juster brings a mostly hidden population to life: Catholics in English America. Her remarkable study invites the reader to imagine the lived experiences of the faithful—fidgeting with a rosary, furtively recognizing a priest, or worrying about how to travel safely through a hostile jurisdiction. By moving a marginal and poorly understood population to the center of her analysis, Juster opens entirely new perspectives on the English Atlantic.”—Alison Games, Georgetown University
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