Conclusion
Religious Liberty     

Religious beliefs and practices thrived in the years after American independence. The Bill of Rights’ authors had expected as much when they inserted religious liberty into the First Amendment. By permitting Americans to choose what to believe—or not to believe at all—and by preventing the federal government from establishing an official religion, the First Amendment nurtured a vibrant and diversifying landscape of belief.   

Over the 1800s, western expansion and conquest increased America’s multiplicity of religious expressions. It also galvanized struggles for dominance, as the desire for sameness, not difference, spurred some to mount homogenizing campaigns. Episodes of repression, resistance, and contests over the boundaries of religious liberty ensued. People defined their beliefs and defended their right to protect them.   

All these actions, for better or worse, were acts of faith. Together, they help tell the story of religion and western expansion and reveal early roots of our religious diversity. Today, the questions and issues our predecessors confronted may sound strikingly familiar. We can learn from their conflicts and compromises.