Colonial Essay
Colonial Essay
In the following paper, I will compare and contrast how religious belief shaped the development of colonial society in the Chesapeake and the Mid-Atlantic colonies until 1740. I chose the Chesapeake and the Middle Atlantic colonies; because those are the areas I am most familiar. I live in the former Virginia colony, and I have traveled in the other southern and mid-Atlantic regions.
Most of the original settlers from the Maryland colony were catholic. Maryland was the fourth English colony, founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore. It was founded as both a refuge for English Catholics and for profit. Most other people in the Chesapeake colonies were Baptist or Presbyterian. In fact Protestant England was still persecuting Catholic believers. Lord Baltimore gave all of his fellow Catholic worshiper’s huge estates and gracious manor houses, while Protestants didn’t receive anything, and were forced to move to the backcountry. Tensions between the Protestants and Catholics rose throughout the century. To prevent further oppression towards the Catholics, by the increasing number of Protestants, Catholics threw their support behind the famed Act of Toleration, which was passed in 1649 by the local representative assembly. This gave the Catholic minority protection by law, which led to a concentrated Catholic population in Maryland. Carolina was created in 1670, and religious toleration there attracted French Protestant refugees. North Carolina was populated by outcasts and religious dissenters from other colonies. Georgia was founded in 1733, the last of the thirteen original colonies. The founding city Savannah consisted of German Lutherans, Scots-Highlanders, and others. All Christians except Catholics enjoyed religious toleration in Georgia. The economy of the region was almost entirely based on farming. Rice, tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton were cash crops. Crops were grown on large plantation, where white indentured servants, then African slaves worked the land.
Religion in Mid-Atlantic colonies was