1620 marked the year of the first successful North American settlement founded by ordinary Europeans; thus, there was no charter by the English government. The English government was urged on by the desire for wealth, while ordinary Europeans settled because of religious concerns. Plymouth Colony was established by Pilgrims in what is now modern-day Massachusetts. The Pilgrims were a group of English Separatists who broke away from the Church of England because they felt that “it did not complete the work of the Reformation.” Considered heretics, they could anticipate no mercy in England. In the New World, however, religion could be practiced freely.

Evidently, as Europe became more and more intolerant, people began to relocate themselves in British North America. The aforementioned religious sects, Pilgrims, Puritans, Catholics, and Quakers, were not the only persecuted groups. Those groups, and many more (Jesuits, Mennonites, Huguenots, etc,) traveled to America in search of freedom.

George Calvert’s son, Cecilius, became Maryland’s first proprietor due to his father’s death. Maryland was unique in the sense that religious toleration was practiced right from the inception of the colony. Coinciding with this was the notion of Catholics and Protestants living together affably. Cecilius Calvert followed through on his father’s wishes, and he abetted that Catholics and Protestants use the same chapel for worship. Additionally, the Toleration Act officially declared that no person "professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall from henceforth be any waies troubled, molested or discountenanced, for or in respect of his or her Religion, nor in the free Exercise thereof within this Province…." Furthermore, this document supplied for the punishment of those who failed

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