"A searching reexamination of disestablishment in early national America and the role of contract law in that process...Deserves a wide readership among historians and all students of church-state separation." - Christine Leigh Heyrman, University of Delaware. "An original contribution that is clearly written and argued and supported by excellent research." - Kermit L. Hall, Utah State University. Many citizens mistakenly point to the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of religious practice, as the origin of the separation of church and state. Indeed, the Bill of Rights represents a crucial step toward the division of religious institutions from the affairs of the government. Yet, from the days of the early republic, the separation of church and state came about slowly, amid contentious legal, intellectual, and religious debates. In this timely study, Mark McGarvie documents America's transition from Christian communitarianism with its government-sponsored religious institutions to liberal republicanism with its insistence that church and government not interfere with one another.McGarvie focuses on the efforts of three key states - New York, South Carolina, and New Hampshire - to disentangle church and state during the early national period.