text: Early American life was colonial, not Protestant/Puritan.
  
  For example, Maryland was founded by the  Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June 20, 1632, in fulfillment of a request by George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, before his death from Charles I for the territory between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
  
  Maryland was specifically founded to provide religious tolerance for Roman Catholics. In the 1640s during what was known as “The Plundering Time” Puritans forcibly seized Maryland, captured priests, imprisoned them, and sent them to England.
  
  Leonard Calvert arrived with troops in 1646 and restored order. An act was passed in 1649 granting religious liberty to all Trinitarian Christians.
  
  And so on. The religious history of the United States outside of New England decidedly included Catholics.