r to form the MassachusettsBay Company in 1629. The colony was well establish from the beginning, and enjoyed the fruitsof the Great Migration, which brought them eleven thousand more refugees.Along with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colony, other colonies sprouted from thesearch of religious freedom, reinforcing the validity of the above statement. Boston Puritans whowere not contempt with the Bay colony founded Hartford in 1635. New Haven was establish inMassachusetts. Both Main and Rhode Island were founded upon the idea of complete religioustolerance, eventually being dubbed the sewer by Boston clergymen because they consisted ofmalcontents and exiles for the Bay Colony.Though the idea of religious freedom was present in the New England colonies, the extentof this idea was not bestowed to all colonist. Such is the case in the Massachusetts Bay colony,were only a freeman could participate in politics. To be constituted as a freeman, one had to bea male who belonged to one of the Puritan congregations, or collectively called the CongressionalChurch. This exclusive method of government practice included only two fifths of adult maleswho enjoyed franchise in provincial affairs. Dispite this factor, non-believers and believers alikepaid taxes for government supported churches and were held to the same laws that were createdspecifically by Puritans wanting to enforce Gods law. Rhode Island was founded in 1936 by Roger WIlliams, who was fleeing Puritans from theBay colony that found him guilty of disseminating new and dangerous opinions to the public. His open challenge on Puritan ideas of government and religion was punished by an order to beexiled to England, but later foiled authorities. Williams built the first American Baptist Church inProvidence upon his arrival in Rhode Island.Rhode Island was the prime example of complete freedom of religion in the New Englandcolonies. The colony established this concept in their gov...
