Chapter 1, Lesson 2
The English Colonies:
Freedom of Religion or Not?
Today we are looking at the question of religious freedom in four of the earliest English
colonies in North America. You studied how the Protestant Reformation affected the
French and Spanish settlements in earlier history. After the Reformation, Catholics and
Protestants were not in agreement and continued to leave England for new colonies.
Comparing the religious “freedoms” in these four colonies is the main point of this
lesson. Each group of students will work on the questions that apply to the documents
attached. Each student should write the questions and the group’s answers in the spiral
notebook.
** This information will appear on your test including the settlement sequence below.**
1.
Jamestown,
Jamestown Virginia, founded 1607
Document: The First Virginia Charter
2.
Plymouth Colony, founded 1620
Document: The Mayflower Compact
3.
Maryland, founded in 1634
Document: The Maryland Toleration Acts
4.
Carolina Colony founded in 1670
Document: The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
The goal is to be able to answer this question at the end of class:
Based on your readings, which would be the most
desirable colony in which to settle? Why?
Do not write on this lesson plan or on the documents
Know the sequence of settlement of four English colonies:
Jamestown (Virginia) 1607
Plymouth 1620
Maryland 1634
Carolina 1670
Write the questions and your group’s answers in your
spiral notebook:
From The First Virginia Charter:
With whom do the settlers hope to share their faith?
From The Mayflower Compact:
What is the purpose of these settlers going to live in Plymouth?
From the Maryland Toleration Acts
What will happen to people who are not Christians or blaspheme Jesus?
From the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
How do the settlers view people who are not Christians?
Are they planning to allow other faiths to exist in the colony? How do you know?
Based on your readings, which would be the most desirable colony in
which to settle? Why?
From The First Virginia Charter (April 10, 1606)
After a lengthy description of the location of the colony by latitudes and longitudes and listing of
the men who are the recipients of the patent (grant) of land, the charter goes on to describe the
importance of the Christian religion in the settlement and development of the colony:
James, [King of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland] …. tend
tend to
propagating
the glory of His Divine Majesty in propagatin
g of Christian religion
miserable
to such people as yet live in darkness and miser
able ignorance of the
make
true knowledge and worship of God …. desires [to ma
ke the colony a
one];;
Christian one]
From The Mayflower Compact (November 11, 1620)
1620)
Plymouth colony was the second settlement in the English colony of Virginia, before it was separated into
its own colony. The settlers were Puritans, Separatists from the Church of England, different from the
Anglicans who settled the Jamestown colony and from the Catholics who later settled in Maryland.
… We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread
Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great
Great Britain,
France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, … for the Glory of
God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our
King and Country, … do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and
equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time
to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general
Good of the Colony; the eleventh of November,.., 1620
From “An Act Concerning Religion”
Maryland Toleration Acts (1649)
The Maryland Colony was settled by English Catholics seeking refuge from the religious conflicts in
England. By 1649, it was clear that the colony would have others moving there besides Catholics, so a
law was written to specify who the colony was for and what would be the consequences for those people
disagreeing.
Be it therefore ordered and enacted: That whatsoever person or persons
within this Province and the Islands thereunto belonging shall from
henceforth blaspheme God, that is Curse him, or deny our Savior Jesus
Christ to be the son of God…..
God…..
…..,, shall be punished with death and
confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands and goods to the Lord
Proprietary [head of the colony] and his heirs.
From The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
March 1, 1669
The colony of Carolina was originally chartered in 1663. However, the Lords Proprietors, or the 8 men
who were in control of the colony, reworked the plan for the colony into this document from 1669. It was
long, outlining the government and other procedural issues. They addressed religion in the colony in the
following excerpt.
… the natives of that place [the colony of Carolina] … are utterly
strangers to Christianity, … gives us no right to expel or use them ill;
and those who remove from other parts …of different opinions
concerning matters of religion, .. it will not be reasonable for us, to
keep them out, …; also that Jews, heathens, and other dissenters from
the purity of Christian religion may not be scared and kept at a
distance from it [the colony of Carolina], …, it shall be lawful for
profession
slaves, [to] be of what church or prof
ession any of them shall think
best, and, therefore, be as fully members as any freeman.