ABSTRACT
Historians generally agree that religion and charity became mutually reinforcing in the urban Anglo-phone Atlantic World in the early nineteenth century. In the context of the United States, the ideology of Republican Motherhood, whereby women were seen to be vitally important in the education of the young as virtuous citizens, was also significant. Like their counterparts across the Atlantic, and north of the Mason-Dixon line, women in southern towns and cities played a central role in the religious and charitable activities of their communities. In Savannah, one-time capital of Georgia, and still an important port as well as the largest city in the state in the early nineteenth century, women vastly outnumbered men in the city's white churches. The formation of the Female Seaman's Friend Society was only the start of a trend of increased sectarianism amongst benevolent women. While the FSFS was at least open to all Protestant denominations, the Episcopal Orphans Home was managed solely by Anglicans.
