I am vacationing with my family in the Historic Virginia Triangle area of Jamestown/Williamsburg/Yorktown. We started out our stay at Williamsburg this morning with a program at the courthouse. It was an audience participation reenactment of an actual 18th century jury trial from this era and area. The trial over which I presided (along with 11 other volunteer justices of the peace who in Colonial Williamsburg were property-owning males who were appointed and served--unpaid--for life) was that of an ordained Baptist pastor who was preaching outside in the woods to groups of people some of whom included slaves. The Church of England was the official church of the colonies, however other protestant religions were permitted so long as their ministers were ordained and government licensed and they preached in meeting houses or churches and didn't go out to evangelize or convert "in the open".
(As an aside--one of the audience participation roles was that of a witness for the defendant who happened to be a Quaker and who would not swear an oath on the Bible but instead "affirmed" to tell the truth.)
The pastor was convicted, but his sentence was stayed (not imposed) because he had a previous conviction for a similar offense which he had appealed and a decision had not yet been rendered.
Tomorrow we hope to see a reenactment in a related theme called "The Promised Land" where an African American Baptist preacher talks about his hopes for the future in a new society where all citizens are equal and where there will be no state church.
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