Colonies in Profile: Religious Freedom, Connecticut/Maryland

•Finish presenting projects.
•Debate royal religious duty and personal civil liberty, the distinctions between freedom "of" religion and freedom "from" religion. Using the writings of Roger Williams & William Penn.
•Teacher Input: Outline establishment of Connecticut as a colony seeking further religious freedom yet becoming one of the strictest colonies. Outline establishment of Maryland as a potential Catholic haven because of Protestant persecution, but general disinterest by Catholics to relocate, thus Protestant majority. Emphasize with students the degree of self-government that the colonists exercised. Include in this discussion the meaning of self-government. In brief, the colonists largely governed their own internal affairs (rule over local matters, including taxation, as opposed to international trade and security) through local legislatures and governance structures chosen by the people. This was partly due to the English tradition of legislative authority and the rule of law, the loose and decentralized pattern of British colonial settlements and rule compared to other empires. Another factor at play here was the great distance between London and the American eastern seaboard, which led to long periods of “benign neglect” of the colonies and the further development of local institutions of self-government. While all of the colonies would eventually become official royal colonies with royal governors, colony-wide legislative bodies were prolific, as were local governments such as townships, counties, and cities. Unlike almost every place in the world at that time and in history, the people were to a large extent ruling themselves.