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Religion in Colonial America
Religion in Colonial America
Early 19th century working conditions
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Religion in Colonial America
Religion in Colonial America
Early 19th century working conditions
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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 peculiar part about these colonies, is that each colonies plantations were different. For example, South Carolina grew rice, while Virginia grew
Besides English settlers there were numerous other representatives of the European countries settling in the new land. And as the Puritans came to practice their own believes so did other nationalities, as explained in the study material. In my own interpretation America represents change and the believe system as well as the way religion was previously practiced was now changing. This change was greatly influenced by the intellectual movement called Enlightenment, which started in Europe and this influence had bearing on the Great Awakening. Besides Puritans now there were Catholics in Maryland, Quakers in Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Church in the southern states.
In the late 1600’s, many European settlers arrived in North America in hopes of escaping the hardships they faced back home. America initially promised colonists the wealth, religious freedom, and escape from oppression they desired. New England was home to dense forests, and hills which was not optimal for crop growth. Therefore, the colonists directed their attention towards trade and commerce. The people in this region were devoutly religious and believed in the education of children.
New England for example had centered their colonies more around religious freedom and were more focused on religion rather than money and power which is why religion had impacted their development a lot more than other colonies. It could be seen in the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic colonies that religion had little impact in their development as they focused more on wealth and power. However the colonies like the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic focused on wealth and power, religion still had an impact on the development in the colonies. New England colonies like Plymouth/Massachusetts Bay, Providence, Hartford, and New Hampshire were all colonies in the New England region. Religion impacted these colonies more than colonies from the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Religion played a great role in the establishment of the English colonies. The main reason the English traveled to North America was to escape religious persecution. Once the English settled in they created colonies, and established rules for a religious society. They would also try to convert Natives into Christianity, and they established universities to practice ministry. Once the English settlers got to North America, the House of Burgesses in 1619 said they would try to convert Native children specifically boys into a “ true religion”, then eventually teach them how teach them how to be Christian civil people.
Introduction In Ronald Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Takaki argues that despite the first slave codes emerged in the 1660’s, de facto slavery had already existed and provides evidence to support this claim. While he provides a range of data, these facts can be categorized in three groups: racial, economic, and historical. These groups served as precursors to what eventually led to slavery codes to be enacted and the beginning of one of the darkest chapters in American History. Racial
Slavery had a tremendous impact on all aspects of Virginia. It helped keep Virginia afloat and at the same time slowly helped its downfall. It affected the economy, social, and class system. By having the slaves work the plantations, it let the owners keep the money which in a way made slavery the mainstay of the economy. When the cotton gin was created it became the core of the social and political aspects of
The religion of the people from New England was called Puritan, which that meant
In 1607, the first wave of colonial settlers arrived in Virginia and began to establish Jamestown. Many of the new settlers came from wealthy families never performing a day of manual labor. With agricultural farming, being the revenue source of the new colonial settlers there would soon be a great demand for labor. Contracts of indentures were expiring and with much devastation in England, there was a shortage of English servants.
New England’s economy would also be influenced by the British tax later that would cause Americans to revolt many of which trusted in their faith to guide them The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 were also motivated by religious beliefs. They believed in the idea of a "city upon a hill," a vision of a holy community that would serve as an example to the rest of the world (American YAWP, 2.6). This belief led to a strict social order and a commitment to the moral and spiritual purity of the community. It also led to conflicts with other religious groups, such as the Quakers, who were seen as a threat to the Puritan social order.
, In order to make as much as possible from these cash crops, english men would come over to be indentured servants. Virginia and Maryland both had huge plantations and urban development, unlike colonies one New England. The main difference in Maryland and Virginia colonies is that Maryland planted other crops than tobacco and had other ways of making money including shipbuilding. Tobacco was not as successful in Maryland due to geographical issues . Both colonies had indentured servants.
This difference was contributed to religious tolerance, economics, and population. Religion was distinctly different between the New England and Chesapeake regions. Although both were overall Catholic, the degree of tolerance for
The Virginia colony intended to reproduce into an English society when they settled. With tobacco becoming a huge crop in Virginia, they invested heavily in servants to help with the plantations, “Our principal wealth…. consisteth in servants.” (Takaki 53). Whites
The New England families tend to travel together, they had a strong sense of community and really would watch out for one another like family. Education was important to the New England colony as so was religion and they were required to study the bible. The Southern Colonies were founded as an economic venture to create wealth where as for the New England colony were mainly about religious reformers and separatists. They were looking for a new way to praise God, that’s not to say that religion wasn’t important to the southern colonies because it was they just had a different way of going about it than the New England colonies. The religion in the southern colonies was more diverse.