The Emergence of Gilded Age Freethought

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter examines the rise of freethought during the Gilded Age, showing how figures such as Robert G. Ingersoll and a wide network of reformers advanced debates on religion, science, women’s rights, labor, and education. It traces the intellectual currents that fostered skepticism, including higher biblical criticism, Darwinian evolution, and European immigration, while also highlighting the contentious growth of Catholicism and the resulting “School Question” over religion in public education. The chapter underscores Ingersoll’s central role as the “Great Agnostic,” whose lectures popularized secular critiques of Christianity, alongside the contributions of other lecturers, writers, and reformers. It also explores the parallel emergence of moderate freethought through the Free Religious Association, led by Octavius B. Frothingham and Francis E. Abbot, who sought to reconcile liberal theology with reason and science, and details Abbot’s activism through The Index, the “Nine Demands of Liberalism,” and the formation of Liberal Leagues. Finally, the chapter situates these radical and moderate strands within broader conflicts over church-state separation, the Catholic “peril,” and the Christian Amendment movement, framing Gilded Age freethought as a diverse yet interconnected campaign for secularism, social reform, and intellectual freedom.</jats:p>