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Religious Requirements for Voting
Only adult males were allowed to vote, and a lot of people could not vote even if they were male because of their religious beliefs. If they did not belong to the established state church, they were not allowed to vote. They also had to own land in order to vote. -
Pilgrims
Pilgrims established Plymouth Colony, and they came there to get religious freedom. They were being generous and thoughtful when they came across the Native Americans. The Pilgrims also celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Native Americans. -
Puritans
Puritans were also a group of people who all believed in the same things. They were also very intolerant when someone else had different beliefs. If anyone had something else to say, they would either be punished or they would have a trial. They dressed in dark/black clothes with no decorations. -
Maryland - The Catholic Experiment
In 1632, Lord Baltimore was granted land all the way from the Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River. He ended up seeing this as an opportunity to grant all the Catholics religious freedom. They were also very accepting and welcomed a lot of people with different religions. This ended up being a fail. -
Dissent in Massachusetts Bay 1637
One of the famous people in Massachusetts Bay was Anne Hutchinson. She was a very religious person, but she had different beliefs from the Puritans. They felt like she was a threat, so they decided to arrest her. When she went on trial, they all decided that she would be banished from Massachusetts Bay. -
More Dissent in Massachusetts Bay
Roger Williams had purchased land, and he founded/established the colony of Rhode Island. Several people moved here for religious freedom including Anne Hutchinson. Anne Hutchinson was kicked out of the place she lived at before which was New York. -
Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
The king owed William Penn’s father, so he awarded William Penn with land. He ended up establishing colonies, and he made them a safe spot for all Quakers. He knew that Quakers would come over because they had suffered great persecution in England. Quakers were religious people who believed in equality for everyone. This meant that no matter what their skin color is or what their religion was, they would all be treated the same. Since they all had the same beliefs, they all got along really well -
The First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was a period when spirituality and religious devotion were revived. The revival of Protestant beliefs was part of a much broader movement that was taking place in England, Scotland, and Germany at that time. -
Virginia Statutes for Religious Freedom
Later on, the rules got less strict. All men were allowed to have their own beliefs, and they were allowed to practice whichever religion they wanted to. In 1776, the Virginia Bill of Rights ensured that you could practice whatever religion you want to.
