Historical Steps Toward Religious Liberty

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson are two of the seven key founding fathers of the United States. The motive of the founders of the U.S. was to establish religious freedom in the colonies; therefore, religion was of importance to them. When the policy of the separation of church and state was enacted by the founding fathers through the Constitution, it meant that under a secular government, religious freedom would always be protected. Issues such as the freedom to practice one’s religion arose in the earlier colonies and the separation of church and states prevents these issues from occurring again. The separation of church and state protects the rights of all and ensures religious freedom. This policy has proven to be nothing but a

could have supreme control over the colonies. For example during the intolerable acts they shut

Religious freedom was one of the main causes for English peoples to move to the New World. They escaped from the de-catholicization of the Church of England in order to believe in what they wanted to belive in. The government once again did not pay any heed to set an official religious set of rules in the colonies, therefore allowing the people to

One of the major causes for emigration from England to North America was religious persecution. Religious tolerance in Britain for other Christian sects besides the Anglican church was virtually nonexistent, resulting in many members of other sects to seek religious haven in the colonies. The vast majority of immigrants coming to New England were followers of

The King in his right mind has total control and power of the colonies and can do whatever he deems necessary to control them. With that said, The king of that time, not thinking about the peoples feelings went ahead and instead of making the people happy did whatever he could to make the government better. Which in the long run was to make money. Well every time the king mad a law to make up for another law that the people didn’t like, it

The Maryland Toleration Act was repealed with the assistance of Protestant assemblymen and a new law barring Catholics from openly practicing their religion was passed. The animosity between Protestants and Catholics in the United States of America, also called ‘American Anti-Catholicism’, resulted from the English Reformation. British colonists were determined to establish a truly reformed church in the

A charter is written authorization that gives an organization permission to do business. The London Company and the Plymouth Company asked King James I to allow them to create a joint-stock company to establish colonies. The king allowed them to do so by issuing a charter. The charter was similar to a constitution for the colony and allowed the two companies to settle on the east coast of America and control trade. It allowed the London Company to colonize the land from the Potomac south to South Carolina, and the Plymouth company to colonize land between Maine and New York. It also stated that colonists were allowed the same powers that the English people had.

Documents B and C represent the distribution of taxable property (Document B) as well as the distribution of land holdings (Document C) that took place in 1756 and 1773. In a letter written by Silas Deane, a Wethersfield merchant and Connecticut delegate to the First Continental Congress, to Patrick Henry, a Virginia delegate to the First Continental Congress, on January 2, 1775, Silas wrote: “[The Connecticut man’s] first principle is to possess a disencumbered freehold, be it ever so small, in preference to the largest under quit rents and landlords…for a Connecticut farmer with two hundred and fifty or three hundred acres of good land, is a rich man, that is, as rich as he wishes to be” (Document F). In that letter, Silas Deane asked Patrick Henry to grant permission to a group of Connecticut settlers and allow them to travel to an Ohio settlement in hopes of procuring the land. By interpreting the above quote, it’s easy to visualize the colonial belief that to own a piece of land, even a small one, provides a greater sense of accomplishment than living on a larger property owned by someone else.

One early settler in Rhode Island was Roger Williams (a founder of Rhode Island) who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was banished because he spoke out against the Court of Massachusetts. Williams had spoken out against the rule of the Court, he questioned the right of authorities to punish religious bickering, and the right to take away Indians land. Another founder was Anne Hutchinson, who was also banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for religious reasons. Rhode Island officially became a state in 1790 on May 29.

The political and religious leader Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683) is best remembered for founding the state of Rhode Island and advocating

The significant reasons for instituting religious tolerance was that Catholics and Protestants followed the first colonists to American. There were many religious conflicts between the beliefs of the Catholics and the Protestants. Lord Baltimore created a Toleration Act of 1649, attempt to reduce conflicts among the two religious groups. The Toleration Act of 1649 made it a crime to restrict the religious rights of Christians and was the first law supporting religious tolerance passed in the English colonies. Maryland set up this law to show that all Christians could live together in peace that was unknown in England. The Toleration Act did not stop all religious conflict, but it helped show that the government some religious freedom and protected

The New England society had a government that used the wrath of religion much more frequently verses the Chesapeake region. John Winthrop leads about 900 settlers to Massachusetts bay colony where just the year before, he was elected governor of the area. As the beginnings of the colony concurs, Winthrop gives

In 1649, Maryland’s Act of Toleration was passed. This Act stated, “...that no person or persons within Maryland professing to believe in any form of Christianity shall be in anyway troubled…” The Protestant settlers were afraid that the Catholics would overpower them. This made Lord Baltimore establish the framework of the Act of Toleration. This was why many settlers voted for Lord Baltimore to be their governor; because he would voice the people’s ideas.

The type of government that took place in Maryland was proprietary government. A proprietary colony is a colony in which land territory is given to a person or group by the king in form of a charter/ license. The proprietors owned the land to themselves with no king appointing positions, making laws, raising militia,collecting taxes, etc. Basically, the proprietors was like the king of the land. The proprietors peformed most of the duties of kings did such as The king usually grants these lands to proprietaries as a form of debit or gratitude towards highly regarded person. Another common reason for these grants of land was to settle British people in these areas quickly. In some cases Kings granted this land in return of a percentage of the

The founders of New England had one major benefit when they were settling. The charter given to their company, the Massachusetts Bay Company, contained a provision that allowed the government of the colony to be located in the colony itself. This allowed the like-minded individuals who settled the colony, to begin with, to set their own laws, and elect their own government officials. These founders did not want the church to be controlled by the State, as they felt it was in England, so they made it illegal for Ministers and Preachers to hold Public office. They did, however, expect the community to live up to certain religious standards. They wanted to live as saintly as possible to prove they were members of the elect, destined for heaven, and they wanted to uphold Gods Laws so that God would prevent great hardship and disaster from befalling the colony.