Law in American Meetinghouses: Church Discipline and Civil Authority in Kentucky, 1780-1845

A revealing look at the changing role of churches in the decades after the American Revolution.

Most Americans today would not think of their local church as a site for arbitration and would probably be hesitant to bring their property disputes, moral failings, or personal squabbles to their kin and neighbors for judgment. But from the Revolutionary Era through the mid-nineteenth century, many Protestants imbued local churches with immense authority. Through their ritual practice of discipli...