Colonial Religion

ChesapeakeNew England Middle Atlantic

The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism

Martin Luther 1517 Against

Catholic doctrine

Protestant Reformation

John Calvin - 1536

Wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion

God all-powerful and all-good

Humans weak and sinful (original sin)

Predestination

King Henry VIII

Broke with Roman Catholic Church

Made himself head of Church of England

Act stimulated total purification of English Christianity

Jamestown, Va.

PrimogenitureJoint-stock

companiesLooking for

gold/wealthJohn SmithJohn Rolfe –

tobacco

Religion in Virginia

Church of England – tax supportedChurch administered relief to poorSecular (not church) criteria for

franchise (vote)Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1701 an Anglican missionary organization

Maryland: Catholic Haven

Founded by Lord Baltimore

CatholicAct of

Toleration-1649

Coode’s Rebellion -1689

John Coode raised an army against Maryland's Catholic leaders

Protestants took over colony

New England Colonies

PuritansSeparatists

Angry that saints must share church with doomed

Mayflower - 1620

landed in Plymouth Bay

Became squatters

Area outside Virginia Company

The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth - 1630

Royal charter to form Massachusetts Bay Company

Claimed to not want to separate from Church of England, only its impurities

Mayflower Compact

agreement to form a body politic and submit to will of majority

promise of self-government

Governor John Winthrop

“City Upon a Hill”

Building the Bay Colony

Not a democracyPurpose of

government was to enforce God’s laws

Only “visible saints” freemen

Applied to believer and nonbeliever

Congregational Church

Tax supportedSelf-governing

congregationalism

Political control in hands on “saints”

Trouble in The Bible Commonwealth

Quakers persecuted with fines, floggings, and banishment

Anne Hutchinson - 1638

accused of heresyclaimed holy life no

sure sign of salvation and that truly saved need not bother with law of either God or man

said she had direct revelation from God

Roger Williams

Challenged charter of Bay Colony

Land taken from Indians without fair compensation

Clergymen should make clean break with Church of England

Pamphlet on religious liberty

Denied authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior

Williams went to Rhode Island and built first Baptist church in 1635

The Rhode Island “Sewer”

No oaths regarding one’s religious beliefs

No taxes to support state church

Sheltered Quakers and other exiles

New England Spreads Out - 1635-1638

Connecticut River valley- Dutch and English- found Hartford

Puritans led by Thomas Hooker

Life in New England Towns

Expansion was orderly

Land grant given by legislature

Town composed of

MeetinghouseVillage greenSchools

required for towns of more than fifty families

Education

Old Deluder Satan Law required schools for towns of more

than fifty families literacy needed in order to read

the Bible Harvard College - 1639

Meetinghouse

Used for both church and town meetings

Democracy

Puritan Congregation Church government

Town meeting leads to political liberty

The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials

Half-Way Covenant

SuperstitionsUnsettled social

and religious conditions

Unconverted children of members baptism not full

membership

Salem Witch Trials

The New England Way of Life

Poor soil led to hard work people less ethnically diverse frugality essential

Life in New England Towns

Expansion was orderly

Land grant given by legislature

Town composed of

Meeting houseVillage greenSchools

required for towns of more than fifty families

Democracy

Puritan Congregation Church government

Town meeting leads to political liberty

The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials

Half-Way Covenant

SuperstitionsUnsettled social

and religious conditions

Unconverted children of members baptism not full

membership

Salem Witch Trials

The New England Way of Life

Poor soil led to hard work people less ethnically diverse frugality essential

Middle Atlantic

Old Netherlanders at New Netherland – 1624

Dutch East India Company

New Amsterdam (New York)

Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors

Wall StreetPeter

StuyvesantLog cabin

Dutch Residues in New York

Left imprints - Harlem, Brooklyn, architecture, Santa Clause, Easter eggs, sleighing, waffles

Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania

Founded by William Penn in 1681

Quakers refused to support Church of England with taxes

took no oathsrefused warfare

military service

Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors

Liberal Pennsylvania

Freedom of worship

no restrictions on immigration

death penalty only for treason and murder

no black slavery

Pennsylvania

mix of ethnic groups

exported grainNew Jersey Delaware

The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies

Pennsylvania

Delaware

New Jersey

New York

Middle Colonies

Exported grain Rivers important

fur trade water wheel power seaports

Ethnically and religiously mixed

Religious toleration

AnglicansQuakersDutch ReformedPuritansLutherans