From Jamestown to Jefferson sheds new light on the contexts surrounding Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom--and on the emergence of the American understanding of religious freedom--by examining its deep roots in colonial Virginia's remarkable religious diversity. Challenging traditional assumptions about life in early Virginia, the essays in this volume show that the colony was more religious, more diverse, and more tolerant than commonly supposed. The presence of groups as disparate as Quakers, African and African American slaves, and Presbyterians, alongside the...