Religion in Colonial America

Throughout the 17th century, colonial America was growing and changing rapidly. Religion was one of the greatest influences on the growth and creation of colonies. Between the proprietary, royal, and corporate colonies the extent of religious freedom largely varied. While many corporate and proprietary colonies chose to allow for religious freedoms, several royal colonies in British North America chose to deny the one thing they left England seeking: freedom of religion.
Proprietary colonies granted an individual or group full rights of self government. These colonies primarily allowed freedom of religion to all. Maryland was the first proprietary colony established and put under the rule of Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, who wanted to create a haven for fellow Catholics, although the Catholics in Maryland soon became out numbered by protestants, who controlled the assembly. This pressured Cecil Calvert to persuade the assembly to pass the Act of Toleration, which allowed religious freedom to all Christians, but death to other religions. This was eventually repealed in the late 1600’s after a brief civil war between the protestants and Catholics. In Pennsylvania, another proprietary colony, the situation was different. William Penn, a Quaker, was given control of Pennsylvania in 1681. He wanted to create a colony under his Quaker beliefs as a haven for all persecuted religions. In 1701, he passed the Charter of Liberties, which granted freedom of worship to all. In 1702 Penn created Delaware form the lower land of what was Pennsylvania and governed it under the same beliefs. Proprietary colonies in British North America valued freedom of religion.
While proprietary colonies accepted people regardless of religion, royal colonies usually did not. Ironically, the puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Company didn’t allowed for religious freedom, which was the reason they left England in the first place. The Pilgrims in Massachusetts and New Hampshire followed strict puritan laws, which didn’t allow for the toleration of other beliefs. In Virginia, similar laws allowed for the population to only worship the Anglican church. However, not all Royal colonies denied freedom of religion. The colonies of Georgia and New Jersey allowed for the practice of all religions.
Corporate colonies were perhaps the most accepting of any type of colony. In 1636, Roger Williams founded Rhode Island after being banished from the Massachusetts colony due to his conflicting beliefs. Williams created one of the first government to allow for complete religious freedom to all Christians, Jews, and Quakers. Two years later, Anne Hutchinson was also banished from the Bay colony due to her belief in antinomianism. She founded a similar settlement in a different part of Rhode Island under the same belief. The founding of Connecticut was also an effect of the strict laws in Massachusetts. In 1636 Reverend Thomas Hooker led a group of puritans to found the colony of Hartford. Corporate colonies were founded under the belief of religious freedom.
Colonies in the New World were built of the basis of religion and created the melting pot know today. The variety of religious ideas in British North America prior to 1750 affected the growth and creation of the New World.