delete

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

deleted for shallowness and consequent relative incoherence.

[derby378]

1. Don't forget about Roger Williams, William Penn, and some old-school Baptists

They wanted greater religious tolerance, but Williams probably outdid them all with his Providence colony.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. You are right and my OP is limited and shallow

I was thinking how much the Pilgrims resemble the early Mormons and how the stock line "The Pilgrims were seeking religious freedom" has ironic overtones

[derby378]

7. Don't be too hard on yourself

There was certainly a lot of that to go around in the early colonies, to be sure.

[Radical Activist]

3. It depends on the colony.

New Englanders may think the new world revolves around them, but they weren't the only early colonists. Some colonies were Puritans. Other colonies did embrace religious freedom. The idea that this nation was not exclusive to any one religion is the philosophy that won out when the nation was created.

[ThomWV]

4. No, although some parts of north America were colonized based on it 100 years earlier.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Marylabd was the dumping ground for Catholics

Virginia had a state religion, strict Protestant.

Mass bay as you noted was Puritan.

It was the Enlightenment and the Constution.

If you are going to say that it was, you gotta be specific as to reality, not myths. Thanksgiving is part of the myth.

[theoldman]

6. It all depends on how you define freedom.

Freedom for me but not for you. It has not changed much since then.