The Role of Religion

What role does religion play in your life? Religion was one of the most important motives of colonization in colonies like Plymouth, Maryland, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.

In Maryland religion was a huge role to the colonist. Although the main role was for profit, Maryland was a place where Catholics could go, and would not have to be in England. By 1649 Maryland had become a haven for Catholics.

The role of religion in Massachusetts was also important. The Puritans believed in something called theocracy. This meant they thought church and state were one. They saw no difference between government and religon and thought thats how the church should be ran. Eventually many of the people started to rebell because they didnt believe in this theocracy. Roger Williams didnt believe that church and state should be one and this was one of his motives for founding Rhode Island. He believed in seperation of church and state, and freedom of religion. This became a place were they could be free to practice there own religion and have seperate government.

William Penn founded also had religious motives for founding Pennsylvania. He got the land as a grant for something owed to his decease father. After Penn got the land he wanted it to be a place where it could also be freedom of religion to save his fellow Quakers. The Quakers were being mistreated just because they had diffrent religious views. Pennsylvania soon became a place where all citizens could worship there religions freely.

There were many reasons for the establishment of colonies in North America. Religion was a major part of establishing these colonies, and it played a major role. Thanks to many rebellious citizens no one has to have church and state as one, or practice a certain religion.