Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Dissenters in Virginia

This book follows the campaign to disestablish religion in Virginia from 1776 to 1786, when Thomas Jefferson’s bill to establish religious freedom was passed. This volume seeks to tell the story of Jefferson and James Madison’s collaboration with Virginia’s religious dissenters; in doing so, Neill works to understand why religion was disestablished in Virginia. Neill argues that despite their religious differences these unlikely allies shared a basic understanding of what religious freedom meant and how best to secure it: by severing the ties between church and state.