What role did religion play in colonial schools?

Answer 1

Religion played a BIG BIG role in schools during this period. It was basically the source of everything. The main religon was Christian, back when people had some smarts. Religion was part of indoctrination of peoples subjugated by the colonial powers. It taught people to obey authority; that authorities were installed by God.

Answer 2

Religion played a significant role in colonial schools, with many being founded by religious groups to promote their beliefs. Education often included religious instruction, and schools were integral in passing on religious values to students. Religion also influenced the curriculum and the moral development of students.

Answer 3

Religion played a big role in colonial life. The whole reason pilgrims left their countries to colonize in America was to gain religious freedom. Their hope was to escape the religious persecution they were facing in their countries. The one thing they did not want to do was to establish a church like the Church of England. The colonists wanted a chance to worship freely and have an opportunity to choose which religion they wanted to take part in.

Answer 2:

Many colonists came as "employees" of European companies and were given land grants to farm valuable crops such as tobacco. All the while, hoping they'd find all of the gold they heard rumors of back in their homelands. And though they might not have wanted to establish a church like the Church of England, most did. The Puritans in New England established their religion as the "recognized" religion. Just as the Dutch Reformists did in New Amsterdam, New Netherland - modern New York. Just as the Church of England established in Virginia, and just as the Catholics did in Maryland. Nobody liked Quakers very much, and their religion was outlawed in at least Puritanical Massachusetts, and in New Netherland under the law of the Dutch Reformist, Peter Stuyvesant. Eventually he gave in to the will of his employers, The Dutch West India Company, who forced him to allow Jews to worship freely, but he kept his edge on the Quakers. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony all ships carrying Quakers to shore were fined, and four were actually hung for not obeying their excommunication orders. And Maryland was colonized in a "for Catholics by Catholics" way, because their religion was outlawed in most colonies, and they were possibly despised even more than Quakers. The Flushing Remonstrance gave the freedom for Turks and Egyptians living in colonial New York the right to gather and practice their religion, most likely of the Islamic faith. But nobody did more for religious freedom than Roger Williams. Persecuted and ex-communicated by the Puritans he fled and founded the colony of Providence. He believed in a land where everyone could freely practice their religion whether they were Jews, Muslim, Baptist, Quaker, Puritan, et al., even the Native Americans were free to practice their Pagan beliefs and rituals. He wrote the Bloudy Tenant of Persecution in which he writes about a wall of separation between church affairs and public affairs. And it was written more than 150 years before Thomas Jefferson mentioned it to the Danbury Baptists, before it became part of our Constitutional law.