Maryland was founded as a place for English Catholics to escape intolerance in England. One of its first acts declared that it would be tolerant of any religion–so long as that religion was Christian and believed in the Trinity. (This is what passed for ‘tolerance’ in the 17th century–Catholics tolerating Christians, Methodists tolerating Baptists, etc. Wiccans would still have been burned at the stake. 8^) )

Rhode Island was founded by Roger Willams, also based on complete religious freedom, the first colony to separate church and state!

Sugggestions? You can read all about these states all over the Internet. Check out Wikipedia’s entry on all three states, click on ‘history’ and read about how they started and how they interacted early-on with their neighboring colonies.

Massachusetts had the Pilgrims, who were trying to find a safe haven, because in England their separatism caused them to lose their homes, get thrown in prison, etc.

Maryland was founded to be friendly to the Catholics.

Rhode Island was established to support religious tolerance for whoever, esp. the people getting run out of Massachusetts for their beliefs, like Quakers for example.