For many years early sermonic literature has proven to be the key to the understanding of the New England mind through the study of Puritan texts and, by extension and implication of scholarly emphases, the American mind.
This bibliography is the first guide to the study of the manuscript sermon literature of the Southern Colonies/States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. No other tool exists. This bibliographic database will help scholars construct a fuller picture of the regional nature of the Southern mind before 1800 as well as its contribution to a national ethos, ultimately leading to a more balanced appraisal of American intellectual history by providing access to a considerable body of southern sermons to place alongside those of the northern and middle states for critical assessment.