Essay On Colonial Religion

Religion impacted colonial development in seventeenth- century North America by causing social, political, and economic spheres of colonial life in different regions to be affected by religious expectations.

Social expectations created by religion in the Chesapeake colonies and the New England colonies were very different from one another due to the branch of Christianity to settle in the area. In the Chesapeake area, Catholics and Protestants settled there. Because they were not interested in seeking religious freedom, religion did not affect the other spheres of the settlers lives. The Chesapeake colonies were not very patriarchal because of the high mortality rate and the lack of women made it difficult for the fathers to have a hold on their families. The Christian faith was not strong
This allowed for more of a tolerance of different religions. The Chesapeake colonies had a melting pot of different religions. They allowed Jews to practice freely in their colonies. The Jewish people from Brazil wrote to the Dutch West India to allow them settle in North America they stated, “... the Jewish nation be permitted… to travel, live and traffic there, and with them enjoy liberty on condition of contributing to others,¨(VOF, 20). On the other hand, the New England colonies were not as tolerable as the Chesapeake colonies. The Puritans were a group of people in England to adopt Calvinist teachings when they became unhappy with how the Church of England was too similar to the Catholic religion. They left England for the Jamestown colony, but were blown off course and settled in present-day Massachusetts. There, they established a Puritan colony. Religion played a large role in the social order of the New England colonies. Due to the number of families that emigrated, New England possessed a very patriarchal society. In New England, women were oppressed and not seen as equals due to the Puritan ideals implemented in their society. The