Religion in the Thirteen Colonies

There were a few reasons why the Puritans were able to successfully establish permanent settlements in North America. One reason is that they were able to focus on the growth of their settlements...

The Puritans fled religious persecution in England. They endured a dangerous journey across the Atlantic and the high risks of trying to establish a settlement in a new place full of Native...

The Puritans gained most of their power following the first English Civil War, and most of the Puritan ministers renounced the Church of England following the English Restoration of 1660 and the...

Puritans were a movement within Protestantism that attempted to "purify" the church, stripping away the accretions of Roman Catholicism, especially as they had developed in the Middle Ages and...

Religion was an essential element in the foundation and development of the New England colonies. Many of the early colonists were "Dissenters," a term used to describe people in England who were...

John Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, serving for twenty years between 1629 and 1649. He was a pious man with a deep faith in God. He speaks of unequal relationships...

The stereotypical image of the Puritans is of a colorless, bland people who considered anything remotely similar to "fun" as sinful. This image is quite wrong. The Puritans engaged in any number of...

Like other groups that sought sanctuary in North America in the seventeenth century, the Puritans desired religious freedom to practice their own faith, but they saw no hypocrisy in not extending...

Let's put it this way. All Puritans were Calvinists, but not all Calvinists were Puritans. What this means is that the term Puritan only really has meaning in the context of English—and therefore,...

Religion shaped colonial society in a number of significant ways. This varied from colony to colony, so it is important to look at different regions in turn. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New...

The Puritans were one of the first group of people to settle in the New World. They were a group of religious separatists from England. As a group in England, they held true to their beliefs and...

The Puritans were Calvinists. They believed in predestination—that God pre-ordained some people to go to Heaven. God showed his favor on the Elect, the Puritans believed, by blessing them with good...

The Puritans didn't think that the Church of England was sufficiently Protestant in its doctrines and practices. Puritans were Calvinists and looked to Calvin's Geneva as the model for the kind of...

Historians generally explain the perceived decline in religious fervor among Puritans to a few key factors. For one thing, many Puritan families, especially those whose presence in New England...

The Puritans who left England, first to seek religious freedom in Holland (most lived in Leyden) and then to America, defined sin in general as rebellion against God and, by extension, God's...

The American colonies settled by the British were overwhelmingly founded on the premise that they would be Christian territories. The United States, however, was founded with the idea of protecting...

The term Puritan came as a term of abuse for Anabaptists; this term is slightly more accurate for those who came to America as they had the strictest views on sexual morality, disapproval of...

There are actually two different branches under this umbrella of theology in Calvinism, but both align in their beliefs that the "elect" are chosen by God for salvation. This contrasts with other...

The Puritans has strong religious beliefs. The main reason they didn't last long is that no young person in his or her right mind would blindly follow a religion like that once an adult. All...

A theocracy is a form of government in which priests of one religion or another rule in the name of God. Colonial Massachusetts is traditionally regarded as a Puritan theocracy because the men in...

Our first observation should probably deal with regional differences in religion during the colonial period in North America. New England was the area primarily settled by Calvinists—that is, the...

In some ways there was religius freedom in the colonies. Each colony had its own religion. The colonists left their homeland in order to go somewhere where they could exercise their religions...

Religion played a significant role in the American colonies. Though the thirteen colonies were business ventures for many of the English who settled in North America, religious freedom was also a...

In the early days the British colonies of New England, the Puritan churches and the local governments were essentially one and the same thing. There was no separation of church and state....

Puritans believed that the Anglican church needed reformation—or as some referred to the idea, "purification"—hence the term Puritan. Though the Anglicans had made progress in separating from the...

When we talk about the Puritans who came and settled in New England, we typically say that they came in search of religious freedom. But this is not true, or at least not in our modern sense of...

The impact of the Pilgrims on America is likely not as substantial as most America History textbooks make it. The pilgrims were not the first settlers from Britain in North America. Virginia was...

Calvinism had a very strong impact on the Colonists who came over to the New World. The premise of the individual's relationship with God occupied a dominant role in the minds of the Colonists....

I think we have a picture of Puritans dressed in formal dark clothing, white starched shirts, tall hats, and silver buckle shoes. All of the females with bonnets and long dresses. Very prim,...

Quakers came to Pennsylvania in high numbers because Pennsylvania was specifically founded as a Quaker-accepting colony. England and other areas of Europe were not accepting of the Quaker faith as...

In order to understand this controversy, it's important first to give some background. In England, Anne Hutchinson and her husband William became followers of the Puritan preacher John Cotton. Anne...

In order to become a full member of a Puritan congregation, a candidate had to give a convincing account of a conversion experience. They were also required to live their lives in a way that...

While still in England, the Puritans were typically treated very poorly. Puritans believed that the Church of England was the true church; however, they felt that it was in need of major reforms....

Both Pilgrims and Puritans were concerned with reforming the Church of England. Both organized groups of colonists to settle in the New World, and they established their new homes in New England...

As an Episcopal minister, Jonathan Boucher opposed the American Revolution based on the grounds that insubordinate behavior was unbiblical. Hence, in his twelfth discourse, he argues that...

Like other groups of Protestant dissenters, the Quakers came to America primarily to escape religious persecution. In the 17th century, when the Quakers first set foot in the "New World," religion...

The Puritans were a group of people who wanted to reform the Church of England. They believed that the Church of England, known as the Anglican Church, didn’t go far enough in making changes. They...

The Puritans came to America primarily because they wanted to practice their religion in peace. At that time in England the Puritans were persecuted because they wanted to purify—which is where the...

The New England colonies contained the current states of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. The Massachusetts (including Maine), Connecticut, and New Hampshire...

Indeed there are. To take but one example, observe the many restrictions placed on gambling in most American states. It's fair to say that the Puritans weren't big on gambling, which they regarded...

The Puritans were a Protestant sect that wanted to simplify the Anglican Church. They followed the teachings of John Calvin (1509–1564). The Puritans emerged during the 1560s in England. The...

To a limited extent, yes. Puritans believed in the power of the individual conscience against tyranny and repression. Modern-day liberals believe much the same thing, except that their idea of...

The Puritans immigrated to America in response to the conflict between their religious beliefs and the doctrinal positions of the Church of England. Puritans, unlike the Pilgrims with whom they are...

The United States is not founded or built on any particular religion. A theocracy is a system of government in which society is governed by a religious doctrine or clergy, but the U.S. is a secular...

There was very little in the way of similarities between the Puritans and the Quakers in Colonial America. In fact, the Puritans were sufficiently opposed to the Quakers that there were instances...

Puritanism was a sect of strict Christianity that taught that the Christian should keep themselves pure of worldly activities and attempted to control and legislate these beliefs. For the most...