 The democratic setup of Plymouth Colony had strong influences on the shaping of democracy in both England and America . William Bradford 's History of Plimoth Plantation was widely read in the motherland . It influenced the political thought of Presbyterian politician and poet John Milton , assistant to Oliver Cromwell , and philosopher John Locke . For example , Locke referred to the Mayflower Compact in his Letters Concerning Toleration . In America , Plymouth Colony initiated a democratic tradition that was soon followed by Massachusetts Bay Colony ( 1628 ) , Connecticut ( 1636 ) , Rhode Island ( 1636 ) , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania ( 1681 ) . In the latter four colonies , founded by Thomas Hooker , Roger Williams , and William Penn , respectively , religious freedom was added to democratic constitutions . These territories became safe havens for persecuted religious minorities . There were strong links between 17th @-@ century Puritanism and the political ideas of the 18th century . On the one hand , there was the congregational democracy practiced now by all Protestant churches , including to a large extent the Anglicans . On the other hand , most of the political concepts of the generation that carried out the Revolution were taken over from the radical Whig party in England ( Commonwealthmen ) , which fed on the liberal political theories of Milton , Locke , and other writers . As children the Revolutionaries had experienced the Great Awakening ( c . 1740 ) . In the words of historian Robert Middlekauff : " The Awakening recalled a generation to the standards of reformed Protestantism , which had prevailed at the time of the founding of America . [ ... ] Radical Whig perceptions of politics attracted widespread support in America because they revived the traditional concerns of a Protestant culture that had always verged on Puritanism . That moral decay threatened free government could not come as a surprise to a people whose fathers had fled England to escape sin . The importance of virtue , frugality , industry , and calling was at the heart of their moral code . [ ... ] Radical Whiggery of the eighteenth century convinced Americans because it had been pervasive in their culture since the seventeenth . " 
