What you believed depended largely on where you lived. As mentioned, the Puritans controlled a large area of New England and were predominantly Protestant. The middle colonies which included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, attracted people of all religious groups consisting of Catholics, Lutherans, Amish, Jews, Presbyterians, and Cutch Mennonites among others. The middle colonies accepted all religions and tolerance was practiced by all as you were guaranteed freedom of religion. The middle colonies was considered a buffer zone between the Puritans of the north and the dominant Anglicanism of the south. The southern colonies included a mixture of religions as well however, the majority were Baptists and Anglicans. The
Salem is a Puritan community, and its occupants live in an extremely strict society. Although the Puritans left England to avoid religious commitment, they established a society in a America founded upon religious discrimination(Critical Essays Historical Period: Puritans in Salem, 2016). Government and religious authority are virtually inseparable, and the individuals who question the local authority are accused of questioning divine authority. The Puritan community considers physical labor and strict discipline to be a religious doctrine which is the best indicators of faithfulness, honesty, and integrity.
Written freedom of religion laws were present for new arrivals from various protestant denominations. Settlers in middle colonies came from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and German states. along with being tolerant to Europeans these middle colonies were also much more hospitable with the natives when they first settled. slavery was frowned upon by most and was felt that it went against gods law. This made for a melting pot of races and religions all working towards a permanent and successful colony.
Although the colonies consisted of diverse groups of people, colonists were mostly Protestants, with the most religious colonies being in New England and down South . Part of the reason for this emphasis on religion in early Colonial life was because of the accessibility of the church. Very few activities in the community were outside the church grounds, and there was always something going on in the sanctuary, beyond the Sabbath and holy worship . Colonial churches were incredibly nuanced, which made having many different denominations of Protestantism fairly easy, pre-war. During and after the war, however, there are fewer denominations, even though colonists that identified as faithful remained similar, if not the same.
Taylor, Bradstreet, and Edwards plainly delineates the overwhelmingly power of religion in Puritan New England, yet contrasts in reason uncover a radical distinction between the tone of the sonnets and the tone of the sermon. Puritanism was a religious change development, that emerged inside the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. The most grand Puritan perspectives was their view of total depravity and civil magistrate. Likewise, when it comes down to chapel and state, the puritans give it a Biblical view, as the church does not answer the state and the state does not answer to the church, but both they both have to reply to God. Through the ballads, Huswifery by Edward Taylor, To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet
However, there were also people from Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. There was also a mix of religion in the colonies, as many came to the colonies to escape religious prosecution. Catholic, Protestants, and
The English colony mostly accepted diverse religious beliefs and had an easy free flow environment for religion. The People that settled their believed in practicing their own religion, their own way. The diversity of religious ideas also
Life before the infamous Salem Witch Trials was very mundane and normal. The village and society was based and founded on the Puritan religion. The people had a very set lifestyle. They were taught to work and pray. When they weren't working, they were praying.
The other colonies consisted of Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, Jews, and others. “The middle colonies were most tolerant of and ethnic diversity.” – Lecture “Family Life” Family life was important to the northern and middle colonies. In fact in 1691 Virginia was virtually an all male colony, that consisted of prostitutes.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was estimated to have a population of 506 in the 1630s. The population then grew quickly, probably because Boston was a popular port city. The population grew to 55,941 between 1630 and 1700. Most of the immigrants that migrated to Massachusetts were from England. The majority of these immigrants were Puritans and their religion meant a lot to them.
The name Puritan comes from their feeling the need to purify the Church of England that persecuted them. They didn't believe in religious leaders, and strictly followed the Bible. The New England Puritans were English Protestants who believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough. In their view, the liturgy was still too Catholic. Bishops lived like they were princes.
Demographically, English settlements were more family oriented than that of the southern colonies. The majority of settlers consisted of families of six children per household and overall the amount of men and women equaled each other as well as the amount of adults to children. The settlers that lived in the New England colonies were dissenters from the Church of England. Predominantly consisting of Puritans, religious freedoms did not exist throughout the northern colonies. They established a congregational church, which is where meetings regarding government policies would take place.
Colonists who came to America differed greatly in backgrounds and settled for various reasons: Colonist in the New England Colony came to America primarily because they were religious reformers and separatist seeking a new way of life; the Middle Colony was inhabited by a tolerant and diverse group of people with different backgrounds; And the Southern Colony was mainly inhabited by English aristocrats, small farmers, and slaves. Because each colonial region inhabited different groups of colonists the social development differed greatly in each region. New England was founded on the Puritan faith and maintained a strong sense of faith, family, and community. New Englan was very strict on enforcing a strong sense Puritan religion, the lifestyle of colonist revolved around the puritan faith, so much so, it was referred to the "city upon a hill". Contrasting greatly with the New England Colony, the Middle Colony was greatly social and religiously diverse.
The Puritan faith included a religious earnestness that dictated their thinking and their way of life. The Puritan faith developed due to dissatisfaction with the Catholic faith and the Church of England. The
New England’s founders were strict Puritans who did not have much tolerance for any religion except their own. Over time, as more and more immigrants came with increasingly diverse beliefs, the once stable foundation began to crack. Conflicts broke out and certain religious groups were banished which led to the development of other nearby colonies, for example Rhode Island and Connecticut. In the Chesapeake region, it was easier and there was not as much controversy over religion. The area started out as a refuge for Catholics, but over time many Protestants immigrated there and soon became the majority.
The Eleutheran Adventurers were a group of English Puritans who left Bermuda to settle on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas in the late 1640s. The small group was led by a man named William Sayle who was the ex-governor of their homeland. They had been expelled from Bermuda for their failure to swear allegiance to the Crown, and were searching for a place in which they could freely practice their religion. This group was the first determined European effort to colonize the Bahamas. During their stay, they preferred to live off the sea by fishing and wrecking amongst other things.