(Abrams 37) .
American settlers were looking for religious freedom, but when creating their new laws for their colonies they often quoted scripture and supported only one type of religion. This quote from The General Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts illustrates how the colonists combined religion and government early on by stating, "If any man after Legal Conviction shall HAVE or WORSHIP any other God but the LORD GOD he shall be put to death." (Eliot) Virginia had also passed several acts regarding religion in their colony. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson pointed out that Virginians :.
had made it penal in parents to refuse to have their children baptized; had prohibited the unlawful assembling of Quakers; had made it penal for any master of a vessel to bring a Quaker into the state; had ordered those already here, and such as should come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they should abjure the country; provided a milder punishment for their first and second return, but death for their third; had inhibited all persons from suffering their meetings in or near their houses, entertaining them individually, or disposing of books which supported their tenets. (Jefferson 157).
These examples illustrate what Thomas Jefferson was trying to convey to those whom would listen; that these early colonies were as intolerant as their homelands. Pennsylvania was the first colony to truly support religious freedom in their laws. In The Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsilvania in America William Penn writes, "One Almighty and eternal God . . . shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their Religious Persuasion or Practice in matters of Faith and Worship, nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any Religious Worship, Place or Ministry whatever." (Soderlund 132) This was used as an example when forming other colonies, on how a government and its people could live without anarchy even though one religion does not rule the land.
