Faith and Authority Collide
Massachusetts Bay was founded in 1628, and Boston became a major colonial center. But its religious leadership did not tolerate every challenge. Roger Williams was banished in 1634, then founded Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636, along with the First Baptist Church in America in 1638.
Anne Hutchinson’s challenge to religious authority ended with her banishment in 1638 after the Free Grace Controversy. These expulsions helped create new colonies shaped by different ideas of conscience and community.
Experiments in Toleration
Maryland passed its Toleration Act in 1649. Rhode Island’s royal charter later recognized freedom of religion and acknowledged Indigenous rights to the soil. Pennsylvania, granted to William Penn in 1681, developed a government associated with broader religious freedoms. Quakers arrived in New England in 1656, bringing another challenge to established religious order.
The Toleration Act passed by Parliament in 1688 gave limited religious freedom to English subjects, while the English Bill of Rights of 1689 became one model later used for the United States Bill of Rights.
Belief Changes the Map
Religious disagreement did not remain a private matter. It pushed people across borders, created colonies, shaped laws, and raised questions about authority.
The colonial world was therefore not simply a collection of English settlements. It was also a series of experiments in how communities might live together when they disagreed about God, conscience, and power. The principle of religious liberty emerged unevenly—but it grew from conflict, not consensus.