religion in the colonies

Since the very first colony was founded in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia, religion played a very important role in America. Nine of the thirteen colonies had established churches. Having an established church meant you paid taxes for the support of that church whether or not you were a member. The colonies with official state or established churches of the Congregational (Puritan) church denomination consisted of Maine, Connecticut, and Vermont. Colonies that remained a part of the original Church of the England were Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and New York. John Calvin had a major influence on the English colonies in America. Calvin was a Frenchmen who broke from the Catholic Church and developed his own form of Christianity. The first Great Awakening begins in the early 1700s around 1715 up to the American Revolution. It is an emotional religious revival. It began in Calvinist churches. The Great Awakening focuses primarily on the idea of the free will. It has a huge impact on the colonies. It causes splits in several religious denominations. It weakens authority by getting people to essentially question, “Is a preacher really needed to lead to salvation?” It increases the growth in religious freedom.
The Quakers arose at the time as well, with George Fox and William Penn. The Quakers believed in the “inner light” and that there is “that of God in every man”. There is a light in every person. They supported gender and racial equality and believed that everyone should be treated equally. They were persecuted everywhere for their beliefs. The main issue in the Quakers persecutions was that there was “a strain toward individualism and diversity demands increasing religious toleration as a basic civil right…and the Quakers challenged every notion of the orthodox community by pressing for religious toleration as a basic civil right.”1 Separatists are considered Calvinists whom settled Plymouth and decided to