CSPAN3 American History TV September 7, 2014
The significance of the virginia statute for establishing religious freedom teaches far beyond the borders of the old dominion. Its influence ultimately extended to the Supreme Courts interpretation of the separation of church and state. In his latest book, todays speaker tells the story of that statute, beginning with its background and the struggle of colonial dissenters with an oppressive church of england. Displacing an established church by instituting religious freedom, the virginia statute divided the most substantial guarantees of religious freedom in any state of the new nation. The e...