During the seventeenth century, the northern colonies were vasty different from the southern colonies. They were based solely around religion and focussed on very different crops. Additionally, people traveled to the northern colonies for a very different reason than people to the southern colonies. They were there to start religious colonies versus to make money. The seventeenth century started with the English Reformation. During this reformation, the Catholic church was outlawed and the king became the leader of the Church of England. This extended all the way to appointing heads of the church. Unlike King Henry the VIII, Puritans wanted a complete reformation, they did not want to stop half way. A new translation of the Bible was even instituted by King James I. There were, …show more content…
While looking for an easier route to China, Henry Hudson and his men set up a trading colony. They attempted to attract wealthy stockholders by offering a large strip of land if they brought fifty families to settle the land. Theses colonies became very religious and culturally diverse which led to a lack of understanding and unity between the colonists. A very large number of Quakers travelled to the newly created Pennsylvania. With all these people, Philadelphia became a giant center of commerce. Additionally, Pennsylvania was the first state to allow freedom of religion. People could practice whatever religion they wanted or they could even chose to not practice a religion at all. This was all within reason of course, because one of the first laws talked about punishment for offenses against God. Religion was an extremely important thing in the society of early colonists. There were very strict laws about religion including the church helping to create laws in order to punish those who went against the church. Even when there eventually was freedom of religion, there were still strict punishments for disrespecting