A. The Spanish and Portuguese
1. The first settlers in the new world were Catholics from Spain and Portugal.
2. Their new world possessions were divided by the Pope in 1494, giving Spain most of the territory.
3. The Spanish established St. Augustine in Florida in 1565, where they promptly wiped out some Huguenots seeking freedom to worship.
B. The English
1. The English settled in Jamestown in 1607 and brought the Anglican church with them.
2. The Anglican Church would become the established church of Virginia, New York, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia.
3. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, bringing their Congregationalist beliefs with them.
4. The great migration of English Puritans began in 1628 with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
5. Originally, the Puritans did not desire to separate from the Anglican Church, but over time, the Puritans came to adopt Congregational beliefs.
6. Harvard College was established in Boston in 1636 for the education of ministers.
7. Yale College was established in Connecticut in 1701 for the same reason.
C. The Dutch
1. The Dutch settled New Netherlands in the Hudson River Valley in 1623.
2. The Dutch Reformed Church in America was under the direct supervision of the mother church in Holland.
3. In 1664, New Amsterdam was captured by the English and renamed New York.
4. The Dutch Reformed Church was permitted to continue its work unhindered.
D. Roger Williams
1. Roger Williams arrived in Massachusetts in 1631.
2. He pastored Congregational churches in Plymouth and Salem.
3. By 1635, his views on church and state had caused him to be banished from Massachusetts.
4. He later founded Providence, Rhode Island, with the help of some Indian friends.
5. It was here in 1638, that Williams founded the first Baptist church in America.
E. The Catholics
1. Most Catholics who came to America settled in Maryland.
2. George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), a Catholic, founded the colony in 1632 to promote religious toleration in the colonies.
F. The Quakers
1. In the early years, Quakers who showed up in Massachusetts were arrested and deported.
2. They were persecuted in other colonies, too.
3. William Penn, a Quaker, obtained a charter for the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681.
4. He began to advertise religious freedom in the European newspapers, which caused many Quakers to come to Pennsylvania.
5. German Reformed, Lutherans, Dunkers, Moravians and Presbyterians also came during this time.
G. The Presbyterians
1. Most of the Presbyterians were Scotch Irish.
2. They began to settle in the middle colonies and later moved south.
3. In 1729, the Presbyterians approved the Adopting Act, which required all their ministers to subscribe to the Westminster Confession.
4. About 25% of the population was Presbyterian during colonial times in America.
Homework: Answer Questions 2-14