Religious Freedom in British North American Colonies Before 1700

Many of the British American colonies that eventually formed a part of the USA were populated by European settlers, who were persecuted for their religious beliefs back home, but they held on passionately to their beliefs. They supported their leaders who dreamed of 'city on hill' and had a great faith in the 'religious experiment' that could be successfully realized in the wilderness of America.

The settlers had a missionary vision of their church even in colonies like Virginia, planned as commercial venture. The entrepreneurs there saw themselves as militant Protestants working towards the glory of their church.

However, the settlers practiced not one but diverse religions before the 18th century and the issue of religious freedom depended largely on the political and religious stance of the region in which they lived.

Before 1700, the British North American colonies differed on the extent of religious freedom in the New world. There were three regional orders, New England, Middle colonies and the South within the colonial empire. Most of the settlers in these colonies were of English origin on whom applied the different Acts of British Empire. Puritanism was predominant in New England. The mid-Atlantic colonies had a majority population of the Quakers. The population in South was oriented more to commerce and enterprise, than religion.

When we speak of religious freedom, we mean the right granted legally to individuals to practice and preach religion. It also means not being persecuted for holding any form of religious beliefs. These regions demonstrated fairly tolerant approach to religion, but we also notice a gap between what was stated and practiced on religious freedom, at the same time. The New England region consisted of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. The English Puritans came to settle in large numbers in this area between 1620 and 1640. They had been originally persecuted in their homeland by state and church. The Puritans thought they were the chosen ones by God for salvation and not everyone could belong to their order. The extreme Puritans were known as Separatists, who left for the New World in 1620. The Puritans set up a government with the aim expressed in the statement, "The whole purpose of the Government was to enforce God's laws."

In the South, Protestant religion was overwhelmingly predominant. However, the religious and political authorities distinctly discriminated against them. Rebel leaders like Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams challenged the authority of Puritan clergy and leaders.

The first colony formed in Massachusetts in 1608 provides us an example of religious freedom. Plymouth, Massachusetts was a colony formed by English Separatists (also known as Puritans) who made an attempt to live without any form of religious discrimination.

New colonies that came into existence prior to 1700 consisted largely of people who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Therefore, the colonists took upon themselves to build an order where religion was a matter of personal faith and belief rather than state imposition. However, some of the colonies, especially the northern colonies deviated from this goal and imitated the British model that combined state and church.

The New England colonies that included New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established as 'plantations of religion.'Although some settlers arrived here with secular motives, a majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed correct.

The Middle colonies were ethnically diverse. Moreover, each colony had its own perspective on religious issues. For instance, Williams openly supported freedom of religion and even such outcasts, as Quakers were acceptable to him. His ideas on separation of state and church were so repugnant that he was declared a heretic and banished out of the Massachusetts Bay colony.

A small group of Puritans and the others in the South felt free to worship without persecution.

The religion developed in varied patterns in the colonies. In Massachusetts, the religious theocracy of the Puritanism was dominant. On the other hand, the Rhode Island allowed full religious freedom. Initially, Baptists were in majority there, but other sects were soon in evidence. Some of the other colonies like New Jersey and South Carolina also allowed complete religious freedom. Colonies as Maryland and Pennsylvania can be said to have been fairly tolerant. We also notice shifting religious preferences in some of these colonies. As for instance, Maryland, at first a haven for Catholics, and Pennsylvania, a haven for Quakers originally, had numerous Anglicans settled within a few decades. Anglicans as well as Presbyterians were also quite populous in further South.

We can say finally that the idea of holy Trinity lay at the foundation of religious belief. If a religion had an allegiance to the notion of Trinity, it was relatively free to worship and practice its religion and the Puritans were especially intolerant.

New England colonies

The Puritans believed that they are the chosen people of God were intended to build a new Jerusalem, a new city of God in the desert. They interpreted the Bible literally more than the British, and try a purified Church, which at times in order to create the launch of their religious beliefs on citizens do not want.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

In 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company received a letter allowing the trade and the colonization of NewEngland. Its shareholders transformed the Puritan colony as a refuge from religious persecution. The Charter, the lands ceded by three miles south of the Charles River, three miles north of the Merrimack was able to create their own government of society, subject only to the king. His government was in the hands of a governor, lieutenant governor, and eighteen people who are elected annually by the company to be placed.

In contrast to the poor and humble pilgrims, the founders ofMassachusetts Bay Colony were men of wealth and social position. They left comfortable homes in England to find a Puritan state in America. They got a big piece of land extending from the Merrimac River to the Charles, and westward across the continent.

In the fall of 1630, the first company called General Court in the new colony. All male residents were described as free, but only had the right wizard, select the colony 's. All legal and Magistrates were the same servers, which keep the elected governor and lieutenant governor. Later, the law is limited, only the outside, the Puritans were to vote.

The Bay Colony government deeded title to the communities, groups of male settlers, who distributes the country is having. And although men have received the highest ranking of the largest land, all men were given enough land to support their families.

The first winter in Massachusetts BayColony> it was tough. Hunger and disease took the lives of two hundred, two hundred and returned to England in the spring. But he handed the nucleus of the Puritans.

The colony of Connecticut

The Puritans of Massachusetts has pushed people from their colony, with their strict rules, but there have been others who have left their own by free. They were not satisfied with the Puritans, and decided to go. Among them were the founders ofConnecticut. They left the city of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield in the Connecticut River.

At the same time, John Winthrop, Jr. led a colony of Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Until then, it seemed the Netherlands, the best chance to resolve Connecticut Valley, but the control of the area was now firmly in the hands of the British.

People did not Charter Connecticut, and wanted something more concrete than a vague compact.So during the winter 1638-1639, met with Hartford and on paper a complete set of rules for their guidance. The constitution of Connecticut 1638-1639 regarded as "the first written constitution truly political history." The government, which was established similar to that of Massachusetts, with one exception in Connecticut, was not a member of the Church to vote and to be in government.

Rhode Iceland

RogerWilliams, a Puritan minister at odds with leaders in various parts of Massachusetts. He thought that the colonists had no right to purchase land from Native Americans were not. And he insisted that the authorities had no authority in religious matters. He insisted on these points so strong that the government has expelled from the colony of Massachusetts.

In the spring of 1636, with four companions, founded the city of Providence. We decided that everyone should befree to worship God as he or she sees fit. Other nonconformists followed Roger Williams in the region, including Anne Hutchinson and William Coddington, who founded in 1638 in Portsmouth.

A short-lived military sent Coddington (purchased by the Narragansetts), on the southern tip of Aquidneck Island, where he was in Newport 1639th The fourth original town, Warwick, was settled in 1642 by Samuel Gorton, another dissident from Portsmouth.

These communities were foundedthe principle of absolute freedom of conscience. Most of the settlers were people who could not withstand the rigors of Puritan theology, law and custom. In fact, they were unable to agree, and for many years been troubled Rhode Island and New England colonies. Your freedom of the soul, Roger Williams as he called it, seemed to extend to civil proceedings.

New Haven John Davenport, an extreme Puritan cleric, and Theophilus Eaton,Merchant of London, were the leaders of the Eastland Company, which eventually led to the colony of New Haven. The leaders and many of their followers were men of large property. The company is in men and women of London and others in Kent, Hereford, England and Yorkshire.

Davenport and Eaton were also members of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Upon his arrival in America in June 1637, they stopped to Boston and remained there during the winter. The pressure was increased tomake their home in Massachusetts, but Davenport was not satisfied to stay where he is just one of many.

Eaton sent voyaging in a suitable place for worship and to trade publicly. Eaton suggested that Quinnipiac was on earth, Connecticut perfect for the new settlement. On April 24, 1638, came five hundred English settlers at the port to settle permanently in the territory of the Quinnipiac Indians.

Before winter, most of the settlers who arrived inApril lived in their house-lots, leaving their basements and other temporary accommodation for new arrivals. Some of the houses that are occupied by persons of small objects, were probably a Dutch traveler had seen in Plymouth, and describes a block of houses built of logs hollowed out.

At a meeting of the Court, a body of sixteen members, led by Eaton, in September of 1640, the new port was officially designated as New Haven. These leaders felt that, for New Havena new shopping center, which will create a series of settlements in the area. These cities would provide their products to New Haven for export. The leaders of these communities were the members of the court, and meet regularly in New Haven.

The success of the settlement soon attracted other believers, and those who are not puritans. It extends to other towns: Milford and Guilford in 1639, Stamford in 1640 and then to Fairfield, Medford,Greenwich, and Branford. These towns formally joined together as the New Haven Colony in 1643. They based their government, from Massachusetts, but they get even stricter adherence to the Puritan discipline.

The Confederation of New England

When civil war broke out in England in 1641, the settlers of New England, more than twenty thousand, with fifty villages, churches and now almost forty years without serious pressure from the mother countrybegan building a new nation to consider. In 1643 the British Parliament acknowledged that "the plantations in New England had, with the blessing of the Almighty, had good and prosperous success without any charge to the public was his mother."

The New England Confederation was a political and military alliance of the British colonies in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and New Haven. Founded in 1643, was to unite the primary purpose of the Puritan colonies againstThe Indians living in their midst, the French, to their north, and the Dutch in New Netherlands Colony to their west.

The settlers, who live in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine have asked the federal government is legal, but were rejected. Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop said that were rejected "because he taught a course different from us, both in their ministry and civil administration." Whatever that means.

The activity ofConfederate colony had to be decided by a committee of eight men each, two. A vote of six was required to make a measurement. The costs and the spoils are divided among the colonies, according to their male population aged between sixteen and thirty years.

The federal government broke up in 1654 to Massachusetts Bay Colony refused to join the war, the war against the Netherlands during the first Anglo-Dutch.

SocialTerms

The New England colonies were all placed on the city system. Each city was composed of a parish, with houses and public buildings. At the center of the village was the Puritan Church, where religious services were held every Sunday, and all were entitled to participate. The church building as a meetinghouse, which had been made to the laws and city business was conducted served.

There were no crops, which required large plantations such as growthTobacco in Virginia. The settlers were small farmers, mechanics, boat builders and fishermen. Do not let the servants or slaves, settlers on the work of the family, their sons and daughters.

The family was the social unit. The healthy food and good atmosphere allows parents to six or seven children to complete. With the boys of ten years he has worked with their fathers in the fields and barn, while her daughters assisted their mothers in the home and garden. Most of the children remained unmarriedand the family farm until their mid or thirty years he worked, knowing that their fathers could possibly provide them with a farm belonging to the family ends up right in the city.