The Genesis of American Freemasonry

Most histories of American freemasonry focus on individual states or individuals, or where a broader sweep has been attempted, are often hagiographies. In contrast, The Genesis of American Freemasonry looks at the development of freemasonry in America and the evolution of its ritual within its contemporary eighteenth-century landscape using primary source material. It acknowledges how the thirteen colonies developed from being a component part of a transatlantic Greater Britain, a composite of America, Britain and Ireland, into an independent nation. It brings together the who and when with the why and how. And it acknowledges that many of the key Masonic figures had the same moral shortcomings as many of those who govern or influence society today. The book explores how freemasonry altered over the eighteenth century and how this was part of a more widespread social and political transformation. It addresses slavery specifically as an institution that was integral to Americas economic growth, and a fault line that impacted American Society. After providing a background to the development of freemasonry as an institution, it covers a time line that begins in 1730 with the appointment of America’s first provincial grand master, and examines the subsequent chartering of lodges and provincial grand lodges in America’s main trading centres from Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston, Savannah and New York, through to the creation of the new State Grand Lodges post-Independence.

The Genesis of American Freemasonry lays out how freemasonry expanded across the thirteen colonies and then pushed westward, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky, and into Ohio and elsewhere. Integral to this story is migration, in particular, transatlantic Irish migration, a blend of London Irish and Ulster Irish, and internal migration, as freemasonry tracked the wagon trails of the American frontier, rolling west from the Atlantic east to the Great Plains. The Genesis of American Freemasonry explains how American freemasonry derived principally from the Grand Lodge of England, adopting and promoting the 1723 Constitutions of Freemasons with its leading-edge Enlightenment precepts and principles, and mirroring and then adapting the different forms of Masonic ritual used in England; how it fused with Antients freemasonry, incorporating the latter’s greater mutuality and accessibility; and how the combination became one of the seminal influences on the foundation of the new American Republic and the 1776 Declaration of Independence. In short, how freemasons and freemasonry helped lay the foundations of the city on a hill. Masonic Enlightenment ideals – a belief in religious and political tolerance, meritocracy, societal and self-improvement – and the governance practices of the lodge – elected officers and majority rule, with one-man one-vote, became part of Americas constitutional development and provided a framework for federal and local government. At the same time, freemasonry enhanced social cohesion, especially on the frontier, where it provided a mutual support structure for its members that was both practical and spiritual.

The Genesis of American Freemasonry draws pen portraits of the men who led American freemasonry, setting out their successes and failures. Many provided weak leadership. Others, however, sometimes achieved remarkable success. This is their story.

“Freemasonry is one of the oldest and most widespread voluntary organisations in the world. Over the course of three centuries men (and women) have organized themselves socially and voluntarily under its name. With a strong sense of liberation, moral enlightenment, cosmopolitan openness and forward-looking philanthropy, freemasonry has attracted some of the sharpest minds in history and has created a strong platform for nascent civil societies across the globe. With the secrecy of internally communicated knowledge, the clandestine character of organization, and the enact of rituals and the  elaborate use of symbols, freemasonry has also opened up feelings of distrust, as well as allegations of secretiveness and conspiracy.

‘Ric Berman has written a number of books on the history and development of Freemasonry in Great Britain, as well as the early years in North and South Carolina and Georgia. All are informative and enlightening, and the reader gains more knowledge after finishing his works. His latest work, The Grand Lodge of England & Colonial America: America’s Grand Masters focuses on the early Provincial Grand Masters appointed by the Grand Lodge of England to the American colonies from the 1730s to 1780s. This book was written during the 2020 lockdown and was time well spent, as Brother Berman delves into the lives and circumstances of these men’s appointments or elections, as well as background information on 18th century society. Brother Berman is adept at bringing together the many strings of these men’s lives to give a fuller picture of who they were, their foibles and strengths. He does not ignore the role of slave ownership of most of the Past Grand Masters, whether they were Southern or Northern. Prince Hall and African Lodge also receive their proper due.’

‘Steven Bullock traces Freemasonry through its first century in America, following the order from its origins in Britain and its introduction into North America in the 1730s to its near-destruction by a massive anti-Masonic movement almost a century later and its subsequent reconfiguration into the brotherhood we know today. With a membership that included Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere, and Andrew Jackson, Freemasonry is fascinating in its own right, but Bullock also places the movement at the centre of the transformation of American society and culture from the colonial era to the rise of Jacksonian democracy. Using lodge records, members’ reminiscences and correspondence, and local and Masonic histories, Bullock links Freemasonry with the changing ideals of early American society. Although the fraternity began among colonial elites, its spread during the Revolution and afterward allowed it to play an important role in shaping the new nation’s ideas of liberty and equality. Ironically, however, the more inclusive and universalist Masonic ideas became, the more threatening its members’ economic and emotional bonds seemed to outsiders, sparking an explosive attack on the fraternity after 1826. American History.’

‘We are fortunate to live in an era of great progress in the scholarly exposition of Masonic history. Brother Ric Berman, FPS, the author of numerous books – among them The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry (2012), Schism (2013), and Loyalists and Malcontents (2015) – has provided us with yet another key contribution to the understanding of the fraternity’s past. From Roanoke to Raleigh is a well-documented and enlightening tour of eighteenth-century North Carolina Freemasonry… The value of a work like this cannot be overstated when you consider that we are currently decades into an anti-intellectualism movement that has threatened to rid American Freemasonry of any hope for scholarly products or even scholarly attempts at understanding pieces of our past. From Roanoke to Raleigh then is important as a comprehensive study of early North Carolina but also as an example for how Masonic historians should approach the telling of their own Lodge or jurisdictional histories.’

‘The first in-depth study of the Freemasons during the Civil War. One of the enduring  themes in Civil War lore is the belief that on the field of battle and afterward, members of Masonic Lodges would give aid and comfort to wounded or captured enemy Masons, often at great personal sacrifice and danger. This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides. From first-person accounts culled from regimental histories, diaries, and letters, Halleran has constructed an overview of 19th-century American freemasonry in general and Masonry in the armies of both North and South in particular, and provided telling examples of how Masonic brotherhood worked in practice. Halleran details the response of the fraternity to the crisis of secession and war, and examines acts of assistance to enemies on the battlefield and in POW camps.’

Alexandre Barat’s Freemasonry and Brazilian Enlightenment examines Masonic activity in Brazil’s political processes, suggesting that Freemasonry was one of the main institutions involved in the struggle to establish a new national identity and confronting the Catholic Church directly.

Loyalists & Malcontents tells the story of Freemasonry in South Carolina and Georgia from the 1730s to the War of Independence and beyond.

The book describes how South Carolina and Georgia’s Masonic Lodges and their members in Charleston, Savannah and elsewhere were linked to their counterparts in England; draws portraits of the planters, lawyers, merchants and officials who comprised the South’s Masonic elites; and explores how Southern Freemasonry evolved as American Independence drew ever closer.