What role did religion play in the establishment of English colonies in North America?

Religion was of the upmost importance towards the establishment of English colonies in North America. Colonies were developed as economic ventures, grants for the monarch, a penal colony (Georgia), yet most significantly for religious reasons. Religion played the most critical role in specific colonies. The colonies that religion was extremely imperative towards were Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. As well as Maryland and Rhode Island.

Plymouth Bay was started when a congregation of Separatists fleeing “royal wrath” left for Holland in 1608. When the colony was established and the Mayflower Compact was signed, the colonists were ready for the first winter. Only 44 of the 102 settlers survived the winter, but the Pilgrims believed that God made "his children" prosperous. This shows the Pilgrims belief in God and religion on a high echelon of civilization.

In 1629, an energetic group of non-Separatists Puritans, fearing for their faith and for England's future, secured a royal charter to form the Massachusettes Bay colony. They prospered to establish a sizable settlement in the Massachusetts area. Govener John Winthrop believed he had a "calling" from God to lead the new religous experiment/colony. Govener Winthrop would state "We shall be as a city upon a hill", a beacon to humanity. The Puritan bay colonists believed they had a covenant with God. An Agreement to build a holy society that be a model for humankind. Though religious toleration was practiced, it was only given ironcally to Puritans and only Puritans, the "visible saints" who alone were eligible for church membership, could be freemen. According to the doctrine of the covenant the only purpose of government was to enforce God's laws. This was also a statement to believers and non-believers were to pay a tax for the "goverment supported" church. Religous leaders influenced admission to church meembership by conducting public interrogations of persons claiming to have experienced conversion. Puritans, like Winthrop, believed in the doctrine of a "calling" to do God's work on earth. It was called the "Protestant ethic". They believed in a Hell where sinners shriveled and shrieked in vain for divine mercy. A poem written by Michael Wigglesworths intiled "Day of Doom" decribed the fate of the damned

They cry, they roar for anguish sore

and gnaw their tounges for horrour.

But get away without delay,

Christ pitties not your cry:

Depart to Hell, there may you yell,

and roar Eternally.

Maryland was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore, of a prominent English Catholic family. Lord Baltimore was to make a refuge for his fellow Catholics. Protestant England was prosecuting Catholics and Maryland was to be considered a "Catholic Haven". Manors were given to Baltimore's Catholic relatives modeled of England's aristocracy. Soon the Catholics became surrounded by Protestants and the Protestants, as in England, threatened to submerge the Catholics and put restrictions on them. Catholics put their faith behind the Act of Toleration which was to be passed in 1649 by the local representative assembly. It added toleration to all Christians but not to non believers of Jesus. As a result, when the colonial era ended Maryland sheltered more Roman Catholics than any other English-speaking colony in the New World.

Roger Williams fled to Rhode Island in 1636 after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious perspective. He called the site where he settled Providence,Rhode Island and declared it a place of religious freedom. He built a Baptist church, the first in America, and established relegious freedom for Jews as well as Catholics. He demanded no oaths regarding religious beliefs, no mandatory attendance at worship, and no taxes to support the church. He even sheltered "Quakers" though disagreeing with their views. Rhode Island was of the most Liberal of the English colonies and most advanced of the Old World. The Puritan clergy back in Boston sneered at "Rouge Island" as "that sewer" in which the "Lord's debris" had collected and rotted. Later, Rhode Island, being the most religously independent, was later known as "the traditional home of the otherwise minded".

In conclusion, these are of the main reasons religion played such a ponderous role in the establishment of English colonies in North America. Relgion was an imperative segment of English colonizaion. It was also one of the most affluental segements of United States history. It is also the of the many foundations of America today. Religion played imperative roles in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. As well as Maryland and Rhode Island.