>I am sure that there were no open, avowed atheists in 17th C
>America; it would have been worth your life, if not from the law,
>then from the neighbors.
Why do you think that the everyday life of Revolutionary America is so markedly different -- in fact opposite to -- that of Revolutionary France? It's possible that you & Michael Pollak are correct, but you need evidence from social history to prove your argument.
Yoshie