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.ÿþprior to the Revolution.Only Anglican parsons could officiate at marriagesin colonial Virginia.Prayer Book rites likely marked the burial of most whiteVirginians.Thus liturgy framed and interpreted the course of life.Similarly,a Christian year beginning with Advent and highlighted by the festivals ofChristmas, Easter, and Whitsunday along with the civil calendar and the pro-gression of the seasons defined Virginians sense of time.Colony-wide publicfasts and thanksgivings underscored the intersection of the civil and religiousand the church s representation of the colony s fundamental beliefs and values.All Virginians men and women, rich and poor, young and old, plantersand merchants, yeomen farmers and artisans, servants and slaves, dissentersand freethinkers were parishioners.Their relation to the parish and theirvaried roles as parishioners are examined in Part IV.Dissenters, for example,upon application were allowed their own ministers and meetinghouses butwere not exempted from parish levies or the requirement that they seek out theAnglican parson when they desired to be married.On the other hand, there isno evidence of dissenters being denied parish assistance when personal needsarose.Slaves were a major component of the parish tax base, although slavesderived no direct material and seemingly limited spiritual benefit from theparish.There is, however, fascinating evidence of Anglican parsons giving sub-stantial attention to catechetical instruction and baptism of African Ameri-cans in the two or three decades preceding the Revolution.Women s experiences as parishioners reflected prevailing eighteenth-century social and cultural norms: no female parsons or clerks; no women onthe vestry.A few found parish employment as sextons, and many served atpublic expense as caregivers.As widows, as wives deserted by husbands, as per-sons dealing with poverty, sickness, or dependent old age, women were majorrecipients of parish assistance, and, as mothers of illegitimate children, weresubjects of prosecution.Nonetheless, the Divine Service afforded the one sanc-tioned occasion for women s regular participation in public life: as worshipersand communicants they enjoyed an equal station otherwise denied them.Women bearing children out of wedlock were not alone in violating be-havioral norms.Throughout the period and largely upon charges broughtby parish churchwardens, county grand juries presented parishioners manymore men than women for swearing, drunkenness, fornication, adultery,gambling, and disturbing the Sabbath or the peace.Parishioners as miscreantsprovide an invaluable means of assessing eighteenth-century Virginia s com-munity standards as well as evidence that a rural, dispersed population found.6 prologue
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