Unitarian Universalists have complicated feelings regarding the roles that our ancestors — Unitarians and Universalists — played during the American Revolution. To be clear, neither denomination had formally organized by the time that the Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed in 1776. The Universalist Church of America was not established until 1793, and the American Unitarian Association did not come into being until 1825.

But the religious ideas of each were beginning to percolate among colonial churches and individuals that were significant in the Revolutionary era were beginning to identify as Universalists and Unitarians along with more formally established denominations like Episcopalians and Congregationalists. Both Unitarians and Universalists were among those who signed the Declaration of Independence and more than a decade later, were involved in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. And it is undoubtedly true that Universalists and Unitarians were among those who fought, were injured, and/or died in the Continental Army. In fact, Rev. Theodore Parker’s grandfather, Captain John Parker, commanded the Minuteman militia on Lexington Green during the first battle of the Revolutionary War.

We are long past the era where there is an unquestioning reverence for the very flawed human beings that helped to found this country and create our democracy. These were individuals who espoused freedom and equality for all in theory, but in practice owned enslaved Black people, subjugated Indigenous populations, and afforded women few, if any, rights. Unitarians and Universalists were among those who did these things, too. We cannot look away from that reality.

But recent actions have taught us that if we don’t claim Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist history ourselves – the good and the bad – others will do so for us, in ways that warp our current set of shared values. There are those in power who will seek to erase our history because it challenges their preferred narrative of who the Founders were and what they believed. And so, it’s important we highlight how Unitarians and Universalists, men and women, helped to establish and shape this nation 250 years ago.

Below, please find a selection of snapshot portraits of some of those people, some famous, some not:

John and Abigail Adams

The first Vice President and second President of the United States, who was intimately involved in drafting the Declaration of Independence and the person who wrote the oldest still-operating constitution in the world (the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), Adams was raised in a Congregationalist church that eventually became the Unitarian United First Parish Church in Braintree, Massachusetts. By the time of his death in 1826, Adams identified as a Unitarian. Books, plays, musicals, television shows, and films have all been written about Adams, but you can read more about his religious beliefs at the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.

Like her husband, Abigail Adams was born into a Congregationalist family (her father was a minister), but she too would eventually become a member of First Parish Church. Two years before her death, she wrote her son, future President John Quincy Adams, that she acknowledged she was a Unitarian. Throughout their marriage, Abigail and her husband corresponded voluminously and it is through that correspondence that we learned of Abigail’s support for the rights of women, in particular. You can read more about Abigail Adams’s religious views at the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.

You can also read more about both John and Abigail Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Adams National Historic Park.

Prince Estabrook

We do not know much about Prince Estabrook’s life, but we do know that he and his father Benjamin were enslaved by the Estabrook family, who lived in Lexington, Massachusetts. We also know that Prince joined his neighbors, and Captain John Parker, on Lexington Green the morning of April 19, 1775 for the first battle of the Revolutionary War. According to the Town of Lexington’s website, Estabrook “was struck by a musket ball in his left shoulder, making him the first Black soldier injured during the American Revolution.” Estabrook in fact continued serving in the Continental Army for another 8 years, and according to the National Park Service, he was a free man when he returned to Lexington after the war ended.

Little is known about Estabrook’s religious beliefs, but when he died in 1830, he was interred in the burial grounds of First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Ashby, Massachusetts.

Sarah Bradlee Fulton

We also don’t know much about the religious views of Sarah Bradlee Fulton, but we do know that the Medford, Massachusetts native was “even in extreme old age… in the habit of walking to and from the Unitarian church every Sunday,” according to an article about her published many years after her death. Fulton assisted her husband and her brothers, who donned costumes mimicking members of the Mohawk nation to participate in the Boston Tea Party in 1773; nursed soldiers during the Battle of Bunker Hill two years later; and delivered messages on behalf of General George Washington during the British occupation of Boston, according to reports published a century later.

You can read her remarkable story at the Dorchester Atheneum. And this past April, the City of Medford honored Fulton by placing a statue of her in front of Medford City Hall.

Judith Sargent Murray and Rev. John Murray

Judith Sargent Murray was one of the late 18th century’s leading intellects, and a very important figure in advancing Universalist teachings in the newly-formed United States. In fact, she wrote the first “catechism” for American Universalism. Judith was also an early feminist, and her most famous work – On The Equality of Sexes (PDF, 8 pages) - was focused on the rights of women. She supported the independence movement, believing that it would improve conditions and opportunities for women, and as the first American woman to write a regular column for a magazine – The Gleaner – Judith advocated for increased education for women through the concept of “Republican Motherhood.” You can read more about her religious beliefs at the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography and her social and political beliefs at the National Women’s History Museum website.

Judith was widowed from her first husband at an early age, and in 1788, she married her second husband, Rev. John Murray. Born in England, Murray became the leading voice for Universalism during the Revolutionary era. In the 1770s, he moved to the American colonies, and then eventually to New England. In 1775, he was commissioned by General George Washington to be a chaplain in the Continental Army, a position he held for nine months. Legal questions connected to his ministry led to the formal organization of Universalism in the United States and to ending the legal religious monopoly that Puritan churches had established in Massachusetts since the founding of the colony in the 17th century.

You can learn more about Rev. John Murray at Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Additionally, more information about both Judith Sargent Murray and Rev. John Murray is available at the Sargent House Museum.

Dr. Benjamin Rush

Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to hold a medical degree, also voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution more than a decade later. Born in Pennsylvania – the state he represented at both the Continental and Constitutional conventions – Rush was also a commissioned surgeon in the Continental Army, a professor of chemistry, and the treasurer to the U.S. Mint, and founded both Dickinson College and Franklin College (later to become Franklin & Marshall College) during his long career.

He was acquainted with Rev. John and Judith Sargent Murray, and assisted in the organization of the final report from the first Universalist general convention, held in Philadelphia in 1790. His long friendships with both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson helped to bring about the reconciliation of the two men before their deaths in 1826.

Benjamin believed in social reform, in part influenced by his Universalist beliefs. According to Dickinson College, after he joined the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society in 1787, he was “not only… a powerful advocate but also… an author of its new constitution and… secretary and later president.” But he also represents the complications of both U.S. history and UU history – while an abolitionist, he also owned an enslaved person, William Grubber.

You can read more about Benjamin Rush’s religious beliefs at the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Additionally, more information is available on his life at Dickinson College and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was once the chair of the institutes of medicine and clinical practice.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all Unitarians and Universalists who were present at the formation of this nation. But these individuals highlight the ways in which our ancestors – and our ideas – cannot be erased from American history.