About Southern Religion in Colonial Times

While New England was home to the Puritans, the southern colonies of America were consistently Anglican. Protestants of all varieties settled in the South and were largely welcomed. The most northern of the southern colonies, Maryland, was originally intended as a refuge for English Catholics. Several factors impacted religion in the southern colonies, including slavery, a lack of towns, villages and cities, and the environment.

History of

While Virginia is culturally largely Southern, the colony is not considered one of the southern colonies. The first of the southern Colonies, Maryland, was established in 1632. The land was given to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, to establish a colony for English Catholics. An act was passed in 1649 guaranteeing religious tolerance to all Christians, both Protestant and Catholic. Carolina was founded in 1663, again with the promise that all Christians would be welcomed, and settlers were offered 40 hectares of land. Carolina split into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712. Georgia, the last of the southern colonies, was established in 1732 as a debtor's colony.

Features

Faith and the church was not as relevant in the southern colonies as it was in the north. While people in the northern colonies lived in villages and towns, southern life was centered on plantations and small, spread out farmland along the rivers. Not surprisingly, this lifestyle made the community church much less a center of life and morality than it was in more urban areas. Official support of diverse Christian faiths allowed settlers of varying denominations to live alongside one another in an agricultural culture impacted as much by trade and the plantation life as by faith.

Significance

The development of the plantation system in Virginia and into the southern colonies led to the introduction of slavery as early as 1619. By the 1680s, slavery had become the most common form of plantation labor in these colonies, and the English the most prevalent slave traders. The Protestant churches in the colonies did not object to slavery, and in fact during the evangelical revivals of the 1740s began to actively preach to slaves and convert them.

Effects

The long-term effects of religion in the southern colonies show up in the culture of each region today. The evangelical movement that first took hold in the mid-18th century created a religious fervor that remains even now. Areas outside the southern colonies settled by French and Spanish settlers are predominantly Catholic. The original southern colonies are still largely Protestant.

The Facts

The southern colonies were each founded with an eye toward religious tolerance and a largely secular environment. The overall impact of religion in the southern colonies was limited until a revival of evangelism in the 1740s brought traveling preachers through the South.