The Evolution of Religious Freedom in North America Prior to the American Revolutionary War

 

         The evolution of religious freedom in North American in the 1600 and 1700s before the American Revolutionary War impacted the Founding Fathers. This effect is reflected in how the nation’s founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, were developed.

     Many of the colonies were founded because people were seeking religious freedom. Colonists often faced religious persecution in their home countries in Europe. They refused to compromise their convictions and fled their homelands in the hope of finding that in North America.[1] Some examples are included to highlight this situation.

     Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by Baptist Roger Williams. It was the first colony with no established church and the first to grant religious freedom to everyone, which was established by royal charter in 1663. This charter was the first of its kind in North America; it remained in place and influenced the development of the state constitution in 1842.[2]

     Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by Quaker leader William Penn as a "Holy Experiment"[3] with the goal of being a place of complete religious tolerance. In 1701, Penn’s Charter of Privileges gave colonists individual freedoms including religion and speech. This charter remained in place and influenced the development of the state constitution in 1776.[4]

     After the Virginia colony was charted in 1606, the Church of England was the designated official church. In 1617, Governor Samue Argall decreed, “Every Person should go to church, Sundays and Holidays…”[5]

     However, religious freedom was not equal across the states and colonies.

     Maryland’s first law guaranteeing religious freedom was signed in 1649. However, the state nullified the law from 1692 until the end of the Revolutionary War, so Maryland was not always a model of religious tolerance. It was not until the mid-1800s that Maryland guaranteed full religious freedom in the state.[6]

     When King Charles of England granted a charter to set up a trading colony in New England in 1629, he also required religious tolerance. The result was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Many of the early colonists were Puritans. Governor John Winthrop “described a special covenant between Puritans and God to advance God’s will in the colony.”[7] But that was only for other Puritans. In 1658, the colony changed its laws to make being a Quaker punishable by death. Between 1658 and 1661, four Quakers were put to death. This was in violation to the royal charter. Religious freedom was not guaranteed in Massachusetts until the state’s first constitution in 1780.[8]

     By the 1770s, the Founding Fathers knew about the differing models of religious freedom across the colonies. Since the Virginia governor’s decree in 1617, the tone had changed by the development of the state’s Declaration of Rights in 1776. It stated “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience…”[9] The Virginia Declaration of Rights served as inspiration for Thomas Jefferson while he drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and for James Madison when he wrote the Bill of Rights in 1789.[10]

 

SOURCE LIST

“5.3 Primary Source and Activity Guide: Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights” National Constitution Center. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/5.3-primary-source-and-activity-guide-virginia-declaration-of-rights-and-the-bill-of-rights.

Benson, Alvin K. “William Penn.” Free Speech Center, September 19, 2023, https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/william-penn/.

Hutchinson, Thomas and John Hutchinson. The History of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay From the Charter of King William and Queen Mary in 1691 Until the Year 1750 vol. 2, 2nd ed. London: J. Smith, printer, 1763. https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Monographs&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=fee130c3-6f8c-43e2-8e2a-19221c90fad6&hitCount=569&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=81&docId=GALE%7CCY0105974577&docType=Monograph&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=SBN-2005e&prodId=SABN&pageNum=5&contentSet=GALE%7CCY0105974577&searchId=R2&userGroupName=vic_liberty&inPS=true.

Lally, Robert Johnson. “Freedom of Religion Comes to Boston.” Archdiocese of Boston. Accessed January 30, 2024. https://bostoncatholic.org/freedom-of-religion-comes-to-boston.

Lasson, Kenneth. “Free Exercise in the Free State: Maryland's Role in Religious Liberty and the First Amendment.” Journal of Church and State (Fall 1989): 419-449. https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1803&context=all_fac.

Maryland General Assembly. A Law of Maryland Concerning Religion, April 21, 1649. https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Monographs&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=0eb62b54-d3f9-4638-8a90-27ff305d3a8e&hitCount=303&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=38&docId=GALE%7CCY0106061971&docType=Monograph&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=SBN-2005e&prodId=SABN&pageNum=2&contentSet=GALE%7CCY0106061971&searchId=R20&userGroupName=vic_liberty&inPS=true.

MacDonald, James. “George Mason.” Mount Vernon. Accessed January 28, 2024. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-mason/.

“PA Government.” Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Accessed January 28, 2024. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/SpeakerBios/PAGovernment.cfm

“Preserving Religious Freedom.” PA Family. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://pafamily.org/issue-religious-freedom/.

ProCon.org. “Religion in the Original 13 Colonies.” Britannica ProCon.org, January 6, 2009. https://undergod.procon.org/religion-in-the-original-13-colonies/.

“Puritan Massachusetts: Theocracy Or Democracy?” Constitutional Rights Foundation 29, no. 1 (Fall 2013). https://www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/gates/puritans-of-mass.pdf.

“Religion and the Founding of the American Republic - Religion and the Federal Government.” Library of Congress. Accessed January 28, 2024. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html.

Rhode Island Department of State. “Rhode Island’s Royal Charter.” Accessed January 29, 2024. https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/civics-and-education/for-educators/themed-collections/rhode-island-charter#:~:text=Rhode%20Island's%20Royal%20Charter%2C%201663,Read%20an%20annotated%20transcript.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights. National Archives. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/virginia-declaration-of-rights#:~:text=Virginia's%20Declaration%20of%20Rights%20was,Convention%20on%20June%2012%2C%201776;

Virginia House of Delegates. The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776). National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/the-virginia-declaration-of-rights.

Wilson, John K. “Religion Under the State Constitutions, 1776-1800.” Journal of Church and State 32, no. 4 (Autumn 1990): 753-773. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23917119.


    [1] “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic - Religion and the Federal Government,” Library of Congress, accessed January 28, 2024, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html.

    [2] Rhode Island Department of State, “Rhode Island’s Royal Charter,” accessed January 29, 2024, https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/civics-and-education/for-educators/themed-collections/rhode-island-charter#:~:text=Rhode%20Island's%20Royal%20Charter%2C%201663,Read%20an%20annotated%20transcript; John K. Wilson, “Religion Under the State Constitutions, 1776-1800,” Journal of Church and State 32, no. 4 (Autumn 1990): 753-773, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23917119.

    [3] “Preserving Religious Freedom,” PA Family, accessed January 29, 2024, https://pafamily.org/issue-religious-freedom/.

    [4] “PA Government,” Pennsylvania House of Representatives, https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/SpeakerBios/PAGovernment.cfm; Alvin K. Benson, “William Penn,” Free Speech Center, September 19, 2023, https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/william-penn/.

    [5] ProCon.org, “Religion in the Original 13 Colonies,” Britannica ProCon.org, January 6, 2009, https://undergod.procon.org/religion-in-the-original-13-colonies/.

     [6] Maryland General Assembly, A Law of Maryland Concerning Religion, April 21, 1649, https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Monographs&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=0eb62b54-d3f9-4638-8a90-27ff305d3a8e&hitCount=303&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=38&docId=GALE%7CCY0106061971&docType=Monograph&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=SBN-2005e&prodId=SABN&pageNum=2&contentSet=GALE%7CCY0106061971&searchId=R20&userGroupName=vic_liberty&inPS=true; Kenneth Lasson, “Free Exercise in the Free State: Maryland's Role in Religious Liberty and the First Amendment,” Journal of Church and State, Fall 1989, 419-449, https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1803&context=all_fac.

    [7] “Puritan Massachusetts: Theocracy Or Democracy?” Constitutional Rights Foundation 29, no. 1 (Fall 2013), https://safe.menlosecurity.com/doc/docview/viewer/docNA007E059C18340279de75046405a1dd7993dff1bb91db718a9f87a726fa9b3614b258336fad1.

    [8] Robert Johnson Lally, “Freedom of Religion Comes to Boston,” accessed January 30, 2024, https://bostoncatholic.org/freedom-of-religion-comes-to-boston; Thomas Hutchinson and John Hutchinson, The History of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay From the Charter of King William and Queen Mary in 1691 Until the Year 1750 vol. 2, 2nd ed., (London: J. Smith, printer): 3, https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Monographs&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=fee130c3-6f8c-43e2-8e2a-19221c90fad6&hitCount=569&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=81&docId=GALE%7CCY0105974577&docType=Monograph&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=SBN-2005e&prodId=SABN&pageNum=5&contentSet=GALE%7CCY0105974577&searchId=R2&userGroupName=vic_liberty&inPS=true.

    [9] Virginia House of Delegates, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776, National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/the-virginia-declaration-of-rights.

    [10] James MacDonald, “George Mason,” Mount Vernon, accessed January 28, 2024, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-mason/; The Virginia Declaration of Rights, National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/virginia-declaration-of-rights#:~:text=Virginia's%20Declaration%20of%20Rights%20was,Convention%20on%20June%2012%2C%201776; “5.3 Primary Source and Activity Guide: Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights,” National Constitution Center, accessed January 29, 2024, https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/5.3-primary-source-and-activity-guide-virginia-declaration-of-rights-and-the-bill-of-rights.

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