The Gloucester Museum of History is hosting an interactive living history performance of the 1773 Baptist Preacher Trials at 2 p.m. Sunday inside Gloucester’s colonial courthouse.
As participants walk through the doors of Gloucester’s 1766 Court House, they will be transported back in time and experience the trial that led Americans on the path towards religious freedom.
In 1773, a minister had to obtain an official license from British Crown authorities to preach in public. Archibald Cary, the magistrate of Chesterfield County, arrested individuals who openly broke this law. Citizens across the countryside began to question the Crown’s authority to regulate religious teachings.
Do British authorities have the right to tell someone how they may practice their religious beliefs? Must an individual pay taxes in support of a church that they do not belong to? These are just a few of the questions that will be explored during a living history performance that will include audience engageme...