Religion in the Early Colonies Religion served as a motive for colonization, as well as a form of government, and a reason for conflict. Colonies like Plymouth, Maryland, and Massachusetts were dominated by religion and were established solely for that purpose. Other colonies were more liberal. Nonetheless, their establishment was triggered by religion. Maryland was founded in 1634.
Religion was important in early government as it would be integrated into governments up until the seventeen hundreds. Governments would mandate laws and social reforms based on their religion. The three main religions that emerged were Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Each of the three uses the same basic structure to run their religion, but each twist it in their own certain ways to make it their own. Early on if you had anything to do with religion you where considered higher up in the society, this belief would last until the Roman Empire and into some of the Middle Ages.
By 1700 in English North America, there was an establishment of a unique Anglo-American society in which religion, race and ethnicity, agriculture, and socio-economic class were fundamental in its creation. Although these factors collectively aided in the foundation of Anglo-America, the religion of the colonists played the most important role in this process. Religion was a central motif in the inception of Anglo-American life. Without religion, the motive for a large amount of immigrants to migrate would have been non-existent; making the colonies nothing more than a tiny hiccup in the English historical timeline. All of these factors were brought out in David Freeman Hawke’s Everyday Life in Early America, a detailed chronology of the life of the colonists.
The forming of towns and communities together with their strict beliefs, lead to this superior number of Puritans. Because the land in the North was mostly infertile, people moved there to live their religious beliefs rather than for economic reasons which was the case in the South. Rhode Island, founded by the outcast Roger Williams, was the only colony that established complete religious freedom (also for Catholics and Jews) in New England. The Middle colonies had a remarkably high religious tolerance and democratic control; however, Jews and Catholics were not allowed to vote, due to pressure from London. This area was mostly inhabited by Quakers, that saw no threat from other religious groups.
Before they Puritans even landed at Plymouth, they constituted and signed the Mayflower Compact, they knew they would some form of government, so they instituted one. It wasn’t a constitution or a promise for a later constitution, it was civil government that grew out of their church. The signers of the compact met as the General Court and would elect a governor and his council. This General Court grew into a body of representatives from various towns. Though only freeman and members of the church could participate in this early form of American democracy began Puritan’s influences on the New England colonies and a source for modern democracy.
By 1750, the New England and Chesapeake colonies exhibited pronounced economic, social and political diversity due to both the differing motives for colonization and the differing geographies of the regions. Essentially, the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies were founded by people with distinctly different motives, the two region’s social, economic, and political developments varied greatly. The New England colonists were interested in escaping religious persecution and seeking spiritual enlightenment. This indicated that many of the colonist left England in families which varied the number of population in these colonies (Doc F). In addition the colonist placed a strong emphasis on education, as evidenced by the 1647 Massachusetts ‘Old Deluder Satan Law’ which mandated that if a town exceeded a certain threshold of families it must start a school.
They were also a strict patriarchal society, in which Anne Hutchinson was casted out of Boston for directing a bible study without male authority. She and her many children left for Rogue’s Island. The New England settlements were mostly based on theocratic government, in which the church members would decide on standards at town meetings. This is compared to the Chesapeake Bay area where it was very religiously tolerant and churches were used mostly for storage.
During the 1600s there were a lot of people who immigrated to America from England, on their journey they brought their religious ideals with them. These strong religious beliefs are evident in the writings of many colonial American literature authors. In addition, all aspects of the colonial life style is affected by religion and the literature of that time period serves to provide evidence of the strong bond between the religious beliefs and literature. There are three colonial authors such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Cotton Mather who writings reflects their religious beliefs in literature. To begin with, lets discuss the famous William Bradford who wrote, “Of Plymouth Plantation," this literature piece discusses his experience traveling to the new world and early colonial life in America.
Chesapeake and New England Colonies Although, their locations (regions), their beliefs and their attitudes provided the major factors; North America had eventually developed into two distinct societies known as New England and Chesapeake in the 1700’s. New England and Chesapeake were founded for many reasons; New England was primarily founded on religious reasons. New England had many religions for example, Puritans which was a religion based on the godly word. The “True Protestants” which were the root of protestant reformation in England. There were also Catholics, in which had descended from England as well.
The norms of the society sexuality is largely based on their religion, like marriage flirting and most of the other sexual behaviors. The introduction of a vampire whose sexuality is not in line with the norms of the community, thus receives many critics’ from the community and it has considered morally right to destroy the sinful creatures associated with the dark