Religious Toleration In The English Colony Essay

1607 marked the year of the first english settlement to be founded in what we now call, America. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries thousands of settlers were united by their desire to come to the New World. Nevertheless, not every colony shared fundamental values, specifically regarding their religious beliefs. Although many colonists settled to escape religious persecution, many of the colonies prime motivations to settle included diversity, profit, and demographics. As life to many settlers revolved around these motivations, and the extent to which they honored them, colonies with common motivations for settlement shared the same foundational religious principles as well. The English settlements that incorporated religious freedom into

their society were unified by their motivations for settlement.
Supportingly, the motivation for a diverse society promoted religious toleration in English colonies.

As a prime example, the english colony Pennsylvania, had divergent motivations for settlements that crafted it into the religouslly inclusive society it became. The colony was settled based upon the principle of equality, because of this being the root of Quaker beliefs in which the founder of the colony, William Penn strictly abided by. Penn was flexible in allowing people of all religions to settle in the colony, because of the quaker beliefs. Ultimately, Pennsylvania had no state regulated church, meaning people were free to practice the religion they chose. The only exception to this being that while everyone could be an active participant in society, only Christians could vote, and hold office. To support the opposing side, Massachusetts Bay’s motivations to acquire a uniformal society, subsequently made the colony lack religious freedom. Based upon John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” vision for the colony, meaning that he wanted it to be a colony highly looked upon by its peers, Massachusetts Bay desired an unvarying society. The Puritan religion was the only religion allowed to be practiced in Massachusetts Bay, implicating the colonies lack of religious freedom. The degree to which a colony wanted diversity, ranging from complete inclusiveness to none at all, greatly determined whether the colony incorporated religious toleration. Colonies that had motivations of a

diversified society, had primarily religiously inclusive values, and vice versa.
Furthermore, colonies with the incitement to make a profit instilled religious toleration.

The Carolinas are a leading example of a colony with primarily economic based motivations that induced freedom of religion. The initial motivation for settlement in the Carolinas, was for colonizers, primarily middle class gentry, to make profit of the prosperous cash crop industry. Thenceforth, by acquiring a profit they rose up in the social hierarchy, and became the new aristocracy. In addition, the profits affirmed more power to the English crown, hence their recent downfall of colonization, and contributed to the mercantilism system. Ultimately, the Carolinas were colonies that consisted of economic based priorities, therefore their focus was shifted away from having a strictly regulated religion. In addition, they used freedom of religion to attract new settlers to contribute to the cultivation of the cash crops. While the Carolinas were primarily religiously inclusive, the colonies were technically Anglican, but this had little to no effect on the colonies religious freedom based principles. Contrary, the Plymouth colony’s motivations for settlement were primarily to escape religious persecution, and therefore their society was strictly centered around separatist beliefs. Unlike the Carolinas, the settlers in Plymouth were seeking more of permanent family based settlements, that relied economically on small independent farming as opposed to major cash crops. In addition,

because their motivations were to create a religious refuge for separatists, none of the settlers consisted of any other religions. Essentially, if the colonies principal motivations did not include a focus on a central religion, this induced them to be a religiously tolerant society.
Moreover, the motives and religion of the colonies’ founders and leaders dramatically influenced if the settlement acquired freedom of religion. A paramount example of this can be found in the Maryland colony. Maryland’s founder George Calvert was a dedicated catholic. Therefore, despite a declining catholic population, Calvert still wanted to found the colony to be based on the motivation of creating a catholic refuge. Despite the colony being founded based on the principle of a dominantly Catholic population, as Catholics became the minority, and conflict arose between them and the Protestants, the Act Concerning Religion was created to ensure religious toleration. The main point point being, that initially the founder of the colony was enforcing his personal religion and beliefs onto those in the colony, despite it not correlating well with the colonies’ settlers. In addition to Maryland, the Pennsylvania colonies founder, William Penn heavily incoprorated his values and religious beliefs into the colony. William Penn was a devote practicer of the Quaker religion, and therefore highly enforced quaker values in the colony. This can be exemplified through the colonies pacifist and equality based values. The founders and leaders goals for the colony widely influenced the colony, and its religious tolerance
The colonies motivations regarding it’s value placed upon uniformity, profit, and founders’ religious background, differentiate colonies with religion from those without. Despite all the founders coming from a central place, their individualistic motives are what created a mirage of different colonies, not only in regard to their religion, but to the fundamental principles of the colonies that are still present to modern day.