APUSH Essay 1 British North America Religous Tolerance
Evaluate the extent to which religious toleration in the British North American colonies maintained continuity as well as fostered changed from 1607-1700.
Prior to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1630 religion had not played a large part in the politics and development of the British North American colonies. The first settlers who established Jamestown in 1607 were looking for riches similar to those found by the Spanish in Central America. After finding no treasure and on the brink of collapse they developed a cash crop economy and by doing so created the first stable British colony. The success of Jamestown combined with religious tensions between Anglicans and Protestants in England, caused the Puritans to form the Massachusetts Company. The puritans believed that they could build a godly society as model for English reform and droves of Protestant family's began to settle in what would become New England. Later, in 1681 William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania with Quaker morals in mind, one of which was religious freedom. Although religious tolerance introduced religious diversity to the middle colonies and fragmented the Massachusetts colony, it did not change the dominance of Protestantism, whose predominance as a major faith remained irrefutable.
It is unmistakable that religion played a big part in both the Middle and New England colonial governments, yet the Middle colonies polices on religion were far more tolerant than those of New England. The Massachusetts colony was founded by puritan families who were told that they were a “city on a hill” with the rest of the world looking up to them. They formed covenants between God and each other to agreeing to “walk in a peaceable conversation”, this desire for peace and purity breed intolerance. Neighbors securitized each other for different believes and caused divisions to grow in their church. Eventually people like Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson would be exiled by colonial
Prior to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1630 religion had not played a large part in the politics and development of the British North American colonies. The first settlers who established Jamestown in 1607 were looking for riches similar to those found by the Spanish in Central America. After finding no treasure and on the brink of collapse they developed a cash crop economy and by doing so created the first stable British colony. The success of Jamestown combined with religious tensions between Anglicans and Protestants in England, caused the Puritans to form the Massachusetts Company. The puritans believed that they could build a godly society as model for English reform and droves of Protestant family's began to settle in what would become New England. Later, in 1681 William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania with Quaker morals in mind, one of which was religious freedom. Although religious tolerance introduced religious diversity to the middle colonies and fragmented the Massachusetts colony, it did not change the dominance of Protestantism, whose predominance as a major faith remained irrefutable.
It is unmistakable that religion played a big part in both the Middle and New England colonial governments, yet the Middle colonies polices on religion were far more tolerant than those of New England. The Massachusetts colony was founded by puritan families who were told that they were a “city on a hill” with the rest of the world looking up to them. They formed covenants between God and each other to agreeing to “walk in a peaceable conversation”, this desire for peace and purity breed intolerance. Neighbors securitized each other for different believes and caused divisions to grow in their church. Eventually people like Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson would be exiled by colonial