When people started migrating from Europe to the New World, people they migrated for various reasons. One of the main reasons people were moving was because of religious freedom. Prior to the 1700s, there were various degrees of religious freedom in the British North American colonies. The colonies were divided into three main sections. These sections were made up of the Northern, Middle,
and Southern colonies. The religious freedom in these colonies varied from state to state; there was a lot of religious freedom in the South, there was some religious freedom in the middle colonies, and the New England colonies were mostly the colonies that were very strict.
The New England colonies consisted of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In the 1620s, many Puritans migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They believed that every aspect of daily life must revolve around God, and they wanted to create a “City Upon a Hill”; a society that everyone would look up to. There was no religious freedom in Massachusetts, because if you didn’t have the same beliefs as the Puritans and didn’t follow their laws that were all based on the Bible, you would be punished. Next, there was Rhode Island, a colony founded in 1644 by Roger Williams. Roger Williams was a man that had spoken out against the church in Massachusetts Bay Colony. He formed Providence in 1636, and later joined with other settlements to form Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, there was religious freedom for everyone; even Jews, Catholics and Quakers could practice their religion there. Rhode Island was the colony that granted the most religious freedom and is an example of what our society is like today. The colony of New Hampshire was not founded for religious freedom, but for business reasons. New Hampshire was however founded by people that disagreed with the Puritans. The colony of Connecticut was founded by Puritans who then again founded the Congregational Church....