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Middle Colonies

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Out of the United States original thirteen, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania made up the four middle colonies. The middle colonies were known for being some of the most diverse settlements out of the original thirteen because of the vast amounts of immigrants coming to them from multiple different European homelands due to their religious tolerances, large amounts of land, fertile soil and various amounts of job opportunities. These reasons along with the middle colonies mass amounts of liberties not only had a major effect on immigration to them, but played a huge role in the creation of the first amendment in the United States Bill of Rights, which includes freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. A various amount of immigrants …show more content…

Immigrants could escape religious prosecution or just be left alone to worship freely in the middle colonies. Three common religious groups found there were the Quakers, the Protestants, and the Catholics. In August of 1672 George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, made his way to the middle colonies to spread his religion and hopefully gain more followers. On October 8th, George Fox stood in a middle colony General Meeting Hall and spoke about the “Society of Friends” to an estimated one thousand people. In his journal he documents that after his speech, “friends and people were generally satisfied and convinced, and the blessed power of the Lord was over all, and a great convincement there is, and a great inquiring after the Truth among all sorts of people, and the Truth is of a good report and Friends are much established, and the world convinced” (Fox 9). Pennsylvania was a safe haven for Quakers. In Europe, Quakers could be put in jail, confiscated of their land or even hung for expressing their religious beliefs publicly. Unlike most other established civilizations at this time, the freedom to express your religious beliefs was not socially accepted, this was what made these four colonies so special and is what helped them to differentiate themselves from the rest, causing more settlers to come live there. Between the 1730’s and 1770’s the Great Awakening took place in the thirteen colonies; The Great Awakening was a period of time where colonists became more centered around religion. Due to most of the Tobacco, Southern and New England colonies lacking the religious tolerances of the middle colonies, it would be plausible to believe that between these time periods, some settlers began to migrate towards the middle colonies as well. Also, the middle colonies religious tolerance most likely persuaded some immigrants fleeing Europe due to possible droughts, landlord

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This truly was a great “holy experiment,” as there was not anything like this going on in the colonies. This meant that the liberty to practice Christianity was guaranteed to all who were in this new Quaker land. Religious freedoms were not the only liberties granted to those who were in this new Quaker land. Foner says, “Penn considered his colony a “holy experiment,” but of a different kind—“a free colony for all mankind that should go hither.” He hoped that Pennsylvania could be governed

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Penn welcomed those in Pennsylvania with the freedom to elect members of the assembly, he invited “all the Freemen, Planters and Adventurers, and other Inhabitants of this Province and Territories, these following Liberties, Franchises and Privileges. ”5 The first law the assembly passed guaranteed religious freedom to all who “confess[ed] and acknowledge[ed] one Almighty God to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world. "6 Furthermore, Pennsylvania guaranteed all liberties to those who recognized God, the almighty but did not force people to convert. For example, the Quakers in Pennsylvania had a strong relationship with the neighboring Native American tribes and did not force conversion.

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