Preview

Religious Concerns In New England

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
492 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Religious Concerns In New England
As a whole, I believe economic development had a larger impact on colonial settlement than religious concerns, but this varies with the individual colonies. Each colony had something different to offer England and a different motive for settling. New England came about because the Puritans and Separatists wanted a place to worship free the original Church of England. Virginia, on the other hand, was established at first as a trade colony and base for gold and precious metal expeditions. The Maryland colony was founded in order to further the cultivation of certain crops like tobacco.
Religion was by no means pushed away in the colonies. It was a strong and meaningful force for almost all colonists; it just wasn’t always their driving force. England held economic control over all colonies and did not let anything get in the way of that. Virginia became an agricultural settlement that brought large amounts of money to Britain. Religion was important and valued higher than everything except money.
The colony of Maryland was given by Charles I to George Calvert, whose son (Cecilius Calvert) allowed freedom of religion to all Christian settlers in the colony. That was the biggest
…show more content…
Because of American influence in English lifestyle (mainly food), the population doubled, leading to high inflation, a very unbalanced wealth distribution, and a plummeting economy. As a result of overpopulation and poverty, people were drawn to North America. Among the attracted people were Puritans and Separatists, who could both escape poverty and start a new colony based off of their own religious beliefs. These people were rebels in the eyes of the English hierarchy, and therefore received much less funding and support from the government. New England evolved as more of a family friendly colony than the Chesapeake Bay colonies, which were more business and economically

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Religious freedom in the Virginia Colony was at a very small or zero amount because of the Anglican religion and the strict rules that were applied on the colony. Virginia was established for the sole reason of commerce or economic factors. Because of its Anglican influence, tolerance for other religions was nonexistent with the prohibition of other religions and ideas. Laws were applied that were based on the factor of religion and if they were disobeyed, it would result from whipping to exile to death.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The foundations of the colonies were different. The New England colonies were founded because the founders wanted freedom of religion. The founders of these colonies were the Puritans. They came to this New World so they can build a society and win God’s favor not only economically but as wells as religiously. They wanted a government that would have God involved around it. Virginia in the other hand was one of the earliest settlements in the New World and was established by over 1,200 settlers. The Virginia colony was one of the first colonies to have elected legislature called the House of Burgesses. These people wanted to become economically wealthy.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religion in the colonies was freer and more persecution free than ever. While religious persecution still existed, it was much milder and there were many places one could go to escape persecution. The Church of England had no effective form of power in the colonies, so they could not enforce the church upon the colonists in the area. Meanwhile, areas such as Rhode Island had extremely tolerant…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Queen Elizabeth I passed away, James Stuart took over as ruler, which led the New England society to be based on “religious and economic forces.” (Jones, Wood, Borstelmann, May, Ruiz 35). The New England colonies were founded in search of seeking religious freedom from the Anglican Church, leading to Puritanism. Jones, Borstelmann, May, and Ruiz argued from the textbook that the Anglican Church shouldn’t be secured to a monarchy, but should be self-governing based on certain religious beliefs. (40). New England’s economy was also suffering around this time. “New England faced peculiar disadvantages, beginning with the soil…New Englanders found no staple crop that could be sold back directly to Britain to create a balance of trade.” (Jones, Borstelmann, May, Ruiz 117). The economic downfall that New England was facing led them to go out to sea to alleviate the economy.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religious belief is a significant difference on the basis that Plymouth Colony existed due to the religious persecution the Pilgrims had experienced. Both colonies were, in other words, rivals regarding religion. Since the Virginia Company had authority over the settlement of Jamestown the religion followed is that of the Anglican faith the official Church of England, who the Pilgrims oppose for their impurity and the way that they prosecuted them. As a result, the Pilgrims establish the Puritan or Congregational Church. Evaluation of the Colonial behavior cannot be completed entirely without discussing the social relationship of these colonies with the Native Americans. The inhabitants of Jamestown had unstable and unkind relations with their…

    • 168 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    AP History DBQ 1

    • 266 Words
    • 1 Page

    Between 1660 and 1775, Great Britain’s North American colonies were affected greatly by race, ethnicity and religion. The first settlers were predominantly white, ethnically, English, and religiously Protestant. The New World was home to many people who sought religious freedom. In addition, the demand of new market and new forces of labor created an opportunity for new races and ethnicities to colonize America. New forces of race, ethnicity and religion show how colonial society was a melting pot compared to any other country in the world. After Queen Elizabeth won the struggle for religious dominance against the Roman Catholics, Protestantism became the main religion in England. Catholics went to the New World to escape religious persecution. Lord Baltimore, a rich catholic, had set out to create refuge for his fellow Catholics so he found Maryland. However, Catholics were not safe from the Protestant immigrants. In 1649, the Act Concerning Religion was passed by the Maryland colony. This act states that no one that believes in Jesus Christ should be in any way troubled or disliked for or in respect to his religion. As seen in Document D, the South is very heavily populated by African- Americans. The reason for this high population was for slavery. Most slaves harvested the cash crop of the South which was tobacco.…

    • 266 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    DBQ Chapter 3

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Religion played a crucial role in this specific relationship. Puritans, the followers of John Calvin, wished to purify the corrupt church. Because of their specific beliefs and doings, they were quite popular with entrepreneurs and merchants - those responsible for the commercial growth in England. By the seventeenth century, the Puritans controlled many English congregations. When King James I came to power, everything changed. No longer was England a religiously tolerant country when persecution of the Puritans began. The turmoil caused actually paved the way for so many immigrants to come and colonize in America, thus forming the Pilgrim colony.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 17th and 18th century, English populace felt that England was over-crowded and oppressive. They longed to mitigate the problems that arose because of the exaggerated population boom and to establish a government that would allot them the freedom they thought they deserved. The English believed that the best way to go about this was to colonize the New World. Subsequently, many colonies began to develop, and of these colonies, Massachusetts and Virginia were the most well-known. The early settlements of the Massachusetts and Virginia were both established by similar groups of people at the same time; however, their contrasting beginnings as a colony, views on religion, and means of economic stability created two different politics and economic systems.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religious views and importance differentiated greatly between the two colonies. New Englanders, the area in which the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled, came to America to exercise religious beliefs that were not allowed before the English Civil War and after the Restoration. They were made up of Protestant sects, mostly Puritans. This religion defined almost every aspect of New England life. Religion was much less significant in Virginia. The main church was the Anglican Church of England, however church attendance and rules did not dictate settlers' actions or goals.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The New England region of the colonies has a basis founded in religion. The first people to found a settlement in the New England region were the Puritans founding the town of Plymouth who came with their families(Doc 2) to basically transplant a portion of home in the new world. They came to the New World in search of religious freedom since they had only recently escaped persecution for their religion in England. This has lead to a strong sense of church which can be found if slightly not as strong in the rest of the colonies, but it also lead to a strong sense of community which in turn lead to the basis of religion being found in the actual reasoning behind the formation of their towns(Doc 4). These settlers came with the mindset that they were to create a “city upon a hill”(Doc 1). On the other hand the Chesapeake region of the colonies can find its basis in economic restitution. The first settlement of this region was formed by a joint stock company known as the Virginia Company. This colony called Jamestown was based solely on its profitability as a business venture. Unlike the original settlers of New England these people came in search of the riches of this New World, leading to the colonies reliance on cash crops to replace the riches not found in…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The settlers of New England came mostly for religious toleration. Many people that settled in New England were Puritan separatists who disagreed with the cruel religious repression of Charles I. The Puritans came to plant a godly commonwealth in New England's rocky soil. The settlers who immigrated to the Chesapeake region had no intention of finding a place to celebrate their religion. Therefore, New England became a much more religious society than the Chesapeake region. John Winthrop, a Puritan priest states in Doc.A "We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world". This shows that their goal was to create a wholesome Christian community, where Christianity could be worshiped in proper ways. It also shows that they believe if they do not do the work God has given them, that he will refuse to help them and they will perish. They felt that they needed to do their work, and because they did, the harsh times were not as bad as the Chesapeake settlers. The Chesapeake settlers mostly came to get rich quick. They would start searching…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Religion played a very important role in the establishment of the England colonies. Communities were developed as business related ventures, allowances for the monarch, a disciplinary community, and also considerably for religious reasons. The most critical role in certain communities was played by religion. The communities that religion was extremely authoritative against were Massachusetts and Plymouth Bay, also Rhode Island and Maryland.…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    political: colonies were ruled by religious leaders through small town meetings, had to identify with church in order to join community or own land.…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This allowed for more of a tolerance of different religions. The Chesapeake colonies had a melting pot of different religions. They allowed Jews to practice freely in their colonies. The Jewish people from Brazil wrote to the Dutch West India to allow them settle in North America they stated, “... the Jewish nation be permitted… to travel, live and traffic there, and with them enjoy liberty on condition of contributing to others,¨(VOF, 20). On the other hand, the New England colonies were not as tolerable as the Chesapeake colonies. The Puritans were a group of people in England to adopt Calvinist teachings when they became unhappy with how the Church of England was too similar to the Catholic religion. They left England for the Jamestown colony, but were blown off course and settled in present-day Massachusetts. There, they established a Puritan colony. Religion played a large role in the social order of the New England colonies. Due to the number of families that emigrated, New England possessed a very patriarchal society. In New England, women were oppressed and not seen as equals due to the Puritan ideals implemented in their society. The…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays