Many colonies were founded for religious purposes. While religion was involved with all of the colonies, Massachusetts, New Haven, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were established exclusively for religious purposes.

Massachusetts's inhabitants were Puritans who believed in predestination and the ideal that God is perfect. Many Puritans in England were persecuted for their nihilist beliefs in England because they felt that the Church of England, led by the Kind, did not enforce a literal enough interpretation of the Bible. Persecution punishment included jail and even execution. To seek refuge, they separated to go to Holland because of its proximity, lower cost, and safer passage. However, their lives in Holland were much different than that of England. The Separatists did not rebel against but rather preferred the English culture. They did not want their

Two other colonies, Maryland and New Haven, had bicameral, or two housed, governments. In Maryland, the governor was appointed by the King and was therefore loyal to England. Only freemen could be in these two houses, but there was more representation due to higher numbers of representatives. This was much like New Haven, which had a bicameral government as well. New Haven had a Constitution called the "Fundamental Orders." It stated that the 7 officials, solely from the church, were only to meet twice a year. Although the meeting times became even more drastically spaced apart, all free men could vote under this government. The fact that one did not have to be a member of the church to vote showed that the government was beginning to break away from theocracy and move closer to democracy.

New Haven and Connecticut were two other colonies founded exclusively for Religious purposes. Many of the Separatists in Massachusetts felt that the religion was too liberal inside of the colony. They felt that the beliefs were not being enforced enough and that the people were not living through literal interpretations of the Bible. These Separatists further separated themselves from Massachusetts and formed a new colony, New Haven. Connecticut was founded by those separatists in Massachusetts who felt that the religion was too strict.

New York was established by Charles II's brother, the Duke of York. He announced that every Christian religion would be tolerated in New York in order to populate his colony and maximize his profit. New Jersey, in addition to New York, was also founded for economic reasons. It was owned by proprietors, and therefore had diverse multiple Christian faiths. There was a three-way division of Quaker, Puritanism, and Protestant beliefs because of the three different proprietors who had their own original Christian faiths. This division of the three different Christian faiths continued until 1702, when all Christian faiths were accepted. This new toleration act was in order to populate the colony and to increase profit. New York and New Jersey were not religiously motivated colonies.

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