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The colony of New York consisted of an extremely diverse group of people from many different cultural backgrounds. There was vast freedom of religion and prosperity was on the rise. Seeing this, it is seemingly parallel to life in the Hudson Valley today.

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Roger Williams was perhaps the first advocate for a separation between church and state. As a result of this, he was banished from the colony of Massachusetts. After establishing the town of Providence, he gave religious freedom to all faiths in the colony.

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Both of these colonies saw a mass migration of puritans. Here, the puritans created the Congregational Church. They established Congregationalism with the intention of giving each parish rights to establish their own ministers and regulations. To this date, many Connecticut and Massachusetts towns are home to those iconic white Congregational Churches.

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In search of a home for persecuted members of his religion, George Calvert, a Catholic, formed the Maryland colony. Upon his death, Calvert's son, Cecil, took over and signed a charter establishing a Catholic government. However, despite this, Catholics were still a minority so the Maryland colony was forced to attract Protestants to make it profitable. In 1655, the government transformed into one of Protestantism. This likely led to the great dominance of Catholicism and Protestantism in this region.