Catholics were among the first Europeans in the Americas and founded Maryland as a refuge from persecution in England. This episode covers the colony's founding by the Calvert family, the 1649 Act of Religious Toleration, the later stripping of Catholic rights, and the Catholic patriots who helped win American independence. Students will see how the Catholic experience in colonial America tested and eventually helped establish the principle of religious freedom.

Key Takeaways

• America's first Catholic parish was established in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, more than 40 years before Jamestown.

• Maryland's 1649 Act of Religious Toleration was the first law in the English-speaking world to guarantee civil rights to Christians of all denominations, though it was repealed just five years later.

• By 1704, Maryland Catholics were prohibited from voting, taxed at twice the rate of other citizens, and restricted to worshiping in their homes.

• Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and the last surviving signer when he died in 1832.

• The First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom, ratified in 1791, represented a promise that Maryland Catholics had seen betrayed and then helped redeem.

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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Why did Catholics found Maryland specifically?

The Calvert family, who held the Maryland charter, were English Catholics at a time when Catholics in England faced significant legal disabilities and social persecution. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, had hoped to create a haven where Catholics could practice their faith freely. His son Cecil carried out the plan, though the colony was always mixed in its population and the Calverts never established Catholicism as the official religion.

Q2: What did Maryland's 1649 Act of Religious Toleration actually say?

The Act Concerning Religion, passed by Maryland's colonial assembly in 1649, guaranteed that no Christian would be penalized for their religious beliefs within the colony. It was the first law in the English-speaking world to mandate religious tolerance, and it protected both Catholics and Protestant dissenters. The act was repealed in 1654 after a Protestant faction gained control of the assembly.

Q3: How did Catholics lose their rights in Maryland after founding it?

Political power in Maryland shifted after the English Civil War and the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Protestant settlers gradually gained the upper hand, and by 1692 the Church of England was established as Maryland's official church. Laws passed in 1704 and 1756 prohibited Catholics from voting, taxed them at double the normal rate, confined their worship to private homes, and eventually required them to give up their weapons.

Q4: Who was Charles Carroll of Carrollton?

Charles Carroll was a wealthy Maryland planter and one of the most prominent Catholics in colonial America. He was the only Catholic among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Because Carroll was a common name, he added 'of Carrollton' to his signature to make clear which Charles Carroll was taking the risk. He lived until 1832, becoming the last surviving signer of the Declaration.

Q5: How did the Catholic experience in colonial America shape the First Amendment?

Maryland Catholics had experienced firsthand what happened when religious tolerance was granted and then revoked by a legislative majority. Their history gave concrete meaning to the argument for constitutionally protected religious freedom, which couldn't be repealed by a simple vote. John Carroll, the first American Catholic bishop, worked with the founders during the constitutional period, and Charles Carroll's signature on the Declaration stood as evidence that Catholic Americans were full participants in the founding.

Catholics at the Cutting Edge of Discovery

When the old world first met the new, Catholics were on the cutting edge of discovery, conquest, mission work, and settlement. In 1565, America's first Catholic parish was established in St. Augustine, Florida. Santa Fe, America's oldest capital city, was founded in 1610. In 1632, the Catholic Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, was granted a charter from King Charles I to found a colony along the Chesapeake Bay. Cecil and his father George were converts at a time of Catholic persecution in England. 

Their plan was for the new colony to be a Catholic refuge. Things did not go exactly as planned. Yet, long before Catholics in England could reclaim their freedom under law, Catholics in Maryland claimed, lost, then reclaimed theirs. Other colonies wrestled with religious freedom in their own ways, including the Puritan experiment we cover in our episode on Winthrop's city upon a hill.

Maryland: A Catholic Refuge, For a While

On November 22nd, 1633, two ships, the Ark and the Dove, set sail from the Isle of Wight destined for the Chesapeake Bay. Altogether, there were more than 200 passengers. Only a few were Catholic, including two Jesuit priests. On March 25th, 1634, the settlers, led by the colony's first governor, Leonard Calvert, arrived at St. Clement's Island. It was the feast of the Annunciation. Father Andrew White celebrated Mass, the first in the American colonies. 

The colony was named Maryland after King Charles's Catholic wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. The newly arrived colonists called their first settlement St. Mary's after the mother of Jesus. In 1649, Maryland's legislative assembly passed an Act of Religious Toleration for all Christians. The act gave Catholics more rights than in any other American colony. That same year, Charles I was beheaded, having lost the English Civil War to Cromwell and the Puritans. Five years later, Protestants gained control of the Maryland government and repealed the Act of Toleration. 

By 1692, Maryland had established the Church of England as the colony's official church. In 1704, the state assembly passed an act to prevent the growth of popery. Catholics were prohibited from voting, taxed at twice the level of other citizens, and restricted to their homes for worship. A few decades later, William Penn would push religious tolerance even further, as we cover in our episode on Penn's Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania.

Charles Carroll and the Road to Independence

The tide began to change in 1773, the year colonial rebels staged the Boston Tea Party. That same year, a Catholic, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Manor, staged his own protest in Maryland in writing. Using the pseudonym First Citizen, Carroll penned a series of letters in the Maryland Gazette, arguing against a proclamation by royal governor Robert Eden that established fees to be charged by public officials. Carroll's star was rising. 

In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which granted full civil rights to Catholic Canadians. Protestant zealots across colonial America denounced the act. In March of 1776, on a most improbable mission, the Continental Congress sent emissaries to Catholic Quebec, hoping to garner support for their war against Great Britain. 

Among them were Charles Carroll and his cousin John, a Jesuit priest, along with future Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase and statesman Benjamin Franklin. The mission failed, but the impression made by the two Catholics was not lost. Charles Carroll would be the only Catholic among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. During the war for independence, many of Carroll's fellow Catholics served in the first Maryland regiment.

Full Rights, At Last

General George Washington, who considered Maryland soldiers to be among his best, forbade the entire Continental Army from burning effigies of the Pope on Guy Fawkes Day. In 1784, Pope Pius VI named John Carroll as superior of the American Catholic missions. In 1789, Benjamin Franklin's friend became the first Catholic bishop in America. 

Two years later, Bishop John Carroll founded Georgetown, America's first Catholic college. Daniel Carroll, cousin to Charles and brother to John, was one of the two Catholics who signed the US Constitution. The other was Thomas Fitzsimons of Philadelphia. In 1776, the Maryland Constitution restored full rights to Catholics. Charles Carroll helped draft the restoration. In England, Catholics would not achieve comparable legal protection for another 55 years, through the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. Maryland's Constitution of 1851 protected religious freedom for Jews and other non-Christians. 

All religious requirements for public office were dropped in the new Maryland Constitution ratified in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended. Charles Carroll of Carrollton Manor died in 1834. The Catholic statesman who helped restore the original vision for Maryland was the last surviving founding father. Today, his bronze image stands in the crypt of the US Capitol. The principle of religious liberty these colonies tested would eventually be enshrined in the founding documents covered in our episode on the Declaration of Independence.