it depends on which colony. in some colonies, in order to do business, hold office or vote you had to be a member of whatever church was the favored church. that is one reason why rhode island was founded
Roger Williams: Father of Religious Freedom in America
Roger Williams came to the New World in 1631 with much the same hopes as the first Pilgrim Separatists.
His heart’s desire was to see a pure church raised up, with no ties to
the Church of England and its corruption, compromise, and oppression.
Ironically that desire is what led to his banishment from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony at the end of 1635. His outspoken zeal for
“soul liberty” proved too radical for the Puritan leaders of the colony,
who had brought with them the same spirit of religious intolerance from
which they had fled.
Slipping away just before his arrest, Roger Williams fled into the
wilderness and found refuge among the Indians. In later writings,
Williams recalls how he was “denied the common air to breathe... and
almost without mercy and human compassion, exposed to winter miseries
in a howling wilderness [for fourteen weeks] not knowing what bread or bed did mean .”
During this time, whatever shelter he found was in the dingy, smoky
lodges of the Indians. Their hospitality to him in his time of need was
something he sought to repay with kindness all the rest of his life.
In early 1636, Williams purchased land from the Indians and with a few friends founded a settlement they called Providence Plantations ,
which soon became a refuge for those “distressed of conscience.”
Williams eventually obtained a royal charter for the colony, which later
became the State of Rhode Island, based on this mandate:
No person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be
anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any
differences in opinion in matters of religion ... but that all persons
may ... enjoy their own judgments and consciences in matters of
religious concernments.
What is most significant about the royal charter is that it
acknowledges at the foundation of Rhode Island’s government two
important principles: republicanism (democratic governments made up of representatives elected by its citizens) and religious liberty .
These principles characterize our American government and are later
expressed in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States.
Neither republicanism nor religious liberty can be found in any of the
charters of the other colonies in which the church and state were
united. It is therefore easy to determine the original source of those
principles which have protected our religious freedom and made America a
refuge for the oppressed of every land. The nation’s debt to Roger
Williams is a debt that can never be canceled. 4951