See also, Salem Witch trials and Mayflower

There were many contributing factors leading to toleration of religion in Colonial America. One contributing factor was the over zealousness of the Puritans to create a  City on the Hill  in Colonial Massachusetts. The Puritans quest to create a perfect society based on Calvinist beliefs only created a society ripped apart by tension, anxiety and fear. A society destined to fail. The result of this rigid society was a quiet rebellion that spread among the second generation. [1]

Puritan Religious Beliefs

The Puritans who settled in Colonial Massachusetts were a dissenter group known as Separatists. This group of colonists left England fleeing religious persecution. Separatists believed that the Anglican Church or Church of England resembled the Roman Catholic Church too closely and was in dire need of reform. Puritans sought to purify the Anglican Church and to create a perfect society based on religious order. This society would be a community modeled on Biblical ideals with strict morals. They thought government should be a theocracy with laws based on Protestant teachings. The intentions of the Puritan colony was to build  a city on the hill.  This city on the hill would be a place of perfect holiness where everyone accepted the same church, the same morality, and the same God. [2] The Puritans believed as their oppressors did, that State sanctioned religion insured a bond between society and government maintaining order and stability. Allowing more than one religion would threaten the stability of society. Therefore, they did not grant religious liberty to anyone.  This fact contributed to the growing movement towards religious toleration. It was noted in an article printed in 1776 in the Massachusetts Spy, quote It is the principle that every religion which is persecuted, becomes itself persecuting, for as soon as by some accidental turn it arises from persecution, it attacks the religion that persecuted it, not as a religion but as a tyranny. Compulsion, instead of making men religious, leads to hypocrisy. end of quote [3]

The Puritans were able to maintain the State Church because in Colonial Massachusetts communities and towns were close to one another. [4] This closeness ensured religious conformity. People kept close watch on their neighbors for sinful behavior. The result was widespread paranoia, tension and anxiety. Second generation Puritans grew up watching their parents live a miserable life seeped in suspicion. This indirectly worked at loosening the standards of the established Church in Colonial Massachusetts. When it was time for the second generation to join the Church, they refused.  Membership in the Puritan Church involved going through conversion to become a saint. Conversion involved over a year of public humiliation.[5]

Baptism was important to the Puritan faith because they believed it was necessary for salvation. The Puritan faith only allowed baptism of babies born of Saints. When the second generation began to have children, it upset the order of society. Since the second generation refused to suffer the ordeal of conversion, they not only condemned themselves to hell but also their children. The older generation could not have their grandchildren forego baptism therefore rules changed to accommodate the baptism prerequisites. [6] Gradually religion lost its grip on the population. Subsequent generations began to display signs of apathy towards religion. Samuel West who was a revered and highly influential clergyman from Dartmouth, Massachusetts in 1776 noted the change in attitude among the populace towards religion. quote Though I confess that the irreligion and profaneness which are so common among us gives something of a damp to my spirits, yet I cannot help hoping and ever believing that Providence has designed this continent for to be the asylum of liberty and true religion. end of quote [7]

Religious Persecution in the Colony

In the Massachusetts Bay colony, those caught practicing the Quaker faith were whipped, tarred and/or hanged. [11] William Rogers chastised the Puritan Colony for refusing to allow freedom of religion after they had experienced religious persecution when he wrote his book The Bloudy Tenant of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. [12] quote The blood of so many hundred thousand souls of Protestants and Papists, spilt in the wars of present and former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace. end of quote [13] William Rogers founded Colonial Rhode Island on the principle of separation of Church and State guaranteeing religious freedom to all who settled there. It became a safe haven for persecuted Jews, Quakers and Presbyterians who had fled the Massachusetts Colony. [14]

See also, Witches and Mayflower