Many leaders of the American Revolution found their inspiration in the Enlightenment, which stressed goodness and reason over faith. But many of the colonists found their inspiration in the Protestant religious traditions of the Great Awakening which shaped their views of the struggle for independence. Evangelism and its emphasis on faith and individuality over absolute authority, seemed to sound the promise of the Revolution.

Revolutionary leaders knew the large effects that religion had on public opinion. Patrick Henry was among the leaders that used evangelical style in his political speeches. He and the other leaders spoke of the war as a moral struggle between good and evil.

Most colonial ministers tried to stay away from the political outbreaks of the time, but some ministers that supported independence preached the Revolution’s message from their pulpits. These ministers that advocated the Revolution were Congregationalist ministers in New England, Presbyterian clergies in the middle colonies, and Baptist ministers in Virginia. Most Anglican clergies in New England and the middle colonies remained loyal to the British, although about a third of the Anglican ministers in Maryland and Virginia supported the struggle for independence.

The sermons of the pro-independence ministers reinforced the Revolution’s political message of the moral struggle between good and evil. Thomas Craddock, a Maryland Anglican warned his congregation: "The life of every sincere Christian is a warfare against a great number of Enemies, some of them very potent, and others very politick. Virtue is a rich Prey rescued narrowly out of the Fire, the purchase of Labor and sweat of Care and Vigilance. We are too liable to loose it by our own Sloth and Treachery." Some ministers were even more direct in supporting the Revolution; one Anglican minister in Virginia urged his church "to support their Liberties…and in a room of God save the king he cried out God Preserve all of the Just rights and Liberties of America."