Catholics were once the predominant religion in the south but they were effectively run out by pre civil war. Culturally it’s been replaced by Evangelicals and now McJesus versions of Evangelicism.
Is this accurate? How do you figure that? Catholic numbers in all of the South grew before, during, and after the Civil War, as a result of immigration.
Of the original colonies, there were no Catholic states.
- Maryland, tried to be, and that experiment was quickly stamped out. We think of it now as a Catholic colony, but that is just not the case.
- Delaware was a slave state with no substantial Catholic history.
Of the Confederate states:
- Georgia had Spanish forts and such, but was never widely inhabited until the British took over and they were not tolerant of Catholics. Catholics trickled in from various directions.
- South Carolina was very much like Georgia. Catholics were barely there and then the religion was not tolerated while it was being settled. They trickled in as immigrants.
- Virginia was certainly not Catholic in any way. Catholics trickled in from various directions.
- North Carolina's Catholic population grew during the mid 19th century. But it was tiny.
- Kentucky had a bunch of Catholics, and they weren't run off.
- Tennessee was not particularly Catholics and the numbers slowly grew in the 19th century.
- Louisiana had a large Catholic population that grew before the civil war. They were not run out.
- Mississippi had no substantial Catholic population pre-Civil War.
- Texas had a huge Catholic population before and after the Civil War. Protestants from the United States certainly harassed the Catholics when they were trying to take the land for the Union. But once the conquest was complete, the Catholics had sufficient numbers to protect themselves politically and things calmed down. They were not chased out.
