As someone who laments driving long distances, especially with tired and hungry children, I can relate. Even as someone who regularly tries to observe the Sabbath rest, I can understand that. Many of us have made the mistake of stopping by Chick-fil-A on a Sunday and then remembering, “Oh, they’re closed on Sunday.” So when I read that a frustrated Sunday traveler on the New York Expressway complained that he had Chick-fil-A in 10 of the newly renovated rest stops, I thought, I felt sorry for you. I then learned that New York State Assemblyman Tony Simone had introduced a bill that would ensure that future leases prevent the Thruway from closing on Sundays, even though the bill would not affect Chick-fil-A on the Thruway. , which predictably caused the conservative ecosystem to overreact. — It was reminiscent of a similar culture war that took place along upstate New York’s most important transportation artery 200 years ago.
In the 1820s, New Yorkers built the Erie Canal. Compounding this impressive feat of engineering was the stagecoach line that ran from Albany to Buffalo, not far from today’s highway path. These internal improvements led to the expansion of New York City and turned small villages like Rochester into booming cities. They also reignited the cause of his bitter early 19th century cultural conflicts: the seven-day work week. Both the Erie Canal and major stagecoach routes in upstate New York operated on Sundays, provoking fierce opposition from Protestants who saw the seven-day work week as the state’s way of giving a fat middle finger to the Almighty. How will God react? Of course the collapse of the United States. As Lyman Beecher argued in a 1929 sermon, this nation would end with “our epitaph warning the world.”
Historians usually say that the turmoil caused by the expansion of the market economy was why so many religious revivals broke out in the early 19th century, giving rise to autonomous reform groups, especially the temperance movement, the Sabbatarian movement, and the abolitionist movement. It has been argued that this is part of the reason why Less attention has been paid to how business itself began as an agent of reform in the 1820s and his 30s. In upstate New York, this took the form of Erie Canal Companies, such as the Hudson & Erie (1927) and the Pioneer Stagecoach Line (1828), which proudly advertised no service on Sundays, or in the case of the Pioneer, which only operated on Sundays. It was operated. Hire a clean, ethical driver and don’t stop at hotels that serve alcohol.
These companies, especially Pioneer, were controversial as they became the focus of a debate over whether the emerging capitalist system should take Sundays off. This generated fiery rhetoric reminiscent of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s post last week about Simone’s Bill X: “This is war.” Pioneer supporters labeled newspaper editors who wrote articles critical of the stagecoach line as “siding with the infidels.” Pioneer’s critics countered that its managers were “fanatics” driven by “blind enthusiasm.” Shenanigans then ensued, with both sides engaging in subterfuge and sabotage. (One of his particularly egregious episodes involves the people driving the horses of her six-day sailing boat “Citizen of the Citizen,” heading for the Erie Canal, the towpath bridge being booby-trapped, and (It is thought to be related to the mysteriously severed tow line.)
Thruway Chick-fil-A shares the profile of Pioneer and Hudson & Erie as a Christian business enterprise, a business steeped in religion. Thanks to the recent controversial U.S. Supreme Court case involving Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cake Shop, these businesses, which have a long history in the United States, are trying to impose their values on the public sphere. At times, it seems like a recent manifestation of conservative Christians. But Sabbatarian business in the 1820s was very different from business today. S. Tuyet Cathy introduced a six-day work week for Chick-fil-A in 1946, not because he wanted to reform the market (or the state), but as a matter of personal belief. The controversy surrounding Chick-fil-A centers on chairman Dan Cathy’s definition of marriage and the evangelical recipients of the chain’s charitable donations. As far as I know, this is the first time the chain’s policy of closing stores on Sundays has been the subject of controversy.
Business and religion have long been intertwined in North America, to the point that not only international students but also secular, progressive students raised in the United States are often surprised by the idea that companies may have a religious spirit. , which is strange at best to some people and downright offensive to others. It’s helpful to remember that there has been controversy over its existence in this country for more than 200 years, and now the list of American religious businesses includes not only Christian establishments, but spiritual crystal boutiques, Botanica, etc. , a Zen macrobiotic store, a Yemini cafe, and a kosher restaurant. Certification company.
Joseph P. Slaughter is assistant professor of history at Wesleyan University and author of Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early Republic (Columbia University Press).
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