Compare 2. and contrast the founding of the English colonies in two of the
following areas Chesapeake, New England, Middle Colonies, and Lower South
-- describing for each colony in that region, how it was established, the economic
or religious motivation (if any) for its founding, and the early economic and
gpolitical characteristics of the colony.
The colonies in New England and the Chesapeake exemplify the many
differences in the culture and lifestyles of the settlers, created mainly because of
the fact that their founding fathers had held separate intentions when they came
to the New World.
The New England and Chesapeake colonies were both settled by immigrants
from England, the New England colonies being founded by the English from East
Anglia, an area in eastern England. They decided to flee England due to religious
persecution. Hundreds of families, men, women and their children, came in
search of a New World where they could practice their beliefs freely. They
founded colonies such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and
Rhode Island as model Christian societies. they formed a society of strict
religious participation, actually very much resembling their homeland. In the
beginning, many called themselves Puritans, and kept things very simple and
plain, concentrating on what was important to them. They used the community to
achieve their goals, building new towns and enjoying the social aspect of their
religion.
At the same time, they were committed to remain working hard to keep their
community productive. They believed the idle hands were the devils
workshops. An issue that really defined a split between the societies was the
slavery conflict. The northerners in New England held true to their belief that
every man shall be equal and no one should be enslaved, while the southerners
in the Chesapeake area strongly believed in the use of slavery. At the same time
the New Englanders worked to help end slavery by preaching to others about the
injustices, they worked diligently to make education in their society strong. Most
people in the towns were literate so that they could read their Bibles and study
them in detail with their friends and family. Some colonists were artisans or
merchants.
Others were small-town farmers, making sure that every member of the
community had a reasonable share of Gods land. The northern colonies were
renowned for being rich in furs, timber and fish. They were especially noted for
developing into a very successful trading region. The New England colonies
made up the middle class society whose focal points were family, education and
religion. The society remained non-capitalistic, yet still buzzed with much activity.
On the other hand, the Chesapeake region had a cash crop get rich quickly
mentality. This aristocratic region consisted of Virginia and Maryland, two
colonies that seemed to be exceedingly materialistic. Evidently, their lives were
based more on their liquid assets than on God or family.
The Englanders who saw the opportunity to take advantage of the popularity of a
brand new crop they had discovered settled the Chesapeake area. These gold
diggers were mainly upper-class men of wealthy families aspiring towards
coming to the New World to create a large profit for themselves. These colonists
were not fleeing England seeking religious or social freedom, but clearly only to
add more wealth to their names. Tobacco soon became the primary crop seen
growing on almost every one of these wealthy mens plantations, which created
tremendous amounts of money to add to their fortunes. Of course almost every
plantation had African slaves working on the land.
These colossal estates came to depend on their slaves to run their farms and
slavery became a common, yet feared, way of life for many Africans.
Unfortunately for these Chesapeake colonies, due to swampy land in much of the
area, towns were not part of the landscape or lifestyle as they were in the north.
This area was a place of fierce competition with a very minute sense of
community, as opposed to the thriving northern colonies surrounded with warm
and inviting community towns. The strong focus on family, education or religion
was not a main highlight in the lives of Chesapeake colonists.
These two regions of the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies
did in truth share the common fact that their settlers were all of English origin. Of
course when they first set sail, even before they reached the New World, they
began to separate into two distinctly different societies already. The clearly
evident reason is because these pilgrims came to the New World each pursuing
something different. The New England settlers were longing to find a more
suitable land of opportunity where they could better their lives and gain religious
freedom. They wanted very much to create a society where they could focus on
their family, religion and education. Where as the Chesapeake settlers, they were
clearly hoping to strike gold in the New World. Many hoped they could improve
their social status even more by gaining large profits from growing and selling
such items as tobacco.
Source(s):
The New England colonists came and made a quite simple society and the
Chesapeake colonists created a more aristocratic society. Their society seemed
to care more about their wealth and power more than anything, where as the
New England society grew to be one with important focus. These two regions
may have shared that same origin and spoken the same English language, but
they rarely spoke of similar things. Because of this culture barrier, a separated
north and south was created, causing two distinctly different societies to evolve
.Whilesomecolonistsledhardlives,otherswerehealthyandprosperous.The
twogroupswhoshowedthesedifferenceswerethecolonistsoftheNewEngland
andChesapeakeBayareas.Thedifferentiatingcharacteristicsbetweenthe
ChesapeakeandNewEnglandcoloniesdevelopedduetoeconomy,religion,and
motivesforcolonialexpansion.ThecolonistsoftheNewEnglandareapossesseda
veryhappyandhealthylife.Thishighwayoflivingwasdueinparttobetter
farming,ahealthierenvironment,andahighrateofproductionbecauseofmore
factories.ThecolonistsoftheChesapeakeBayregion,ontheotherhand,led
harderlivescomparedtothatofthecolonistsofNewEngland.TheChesapeake
Bayhadanunhealthyenvironment,badeatingdiets,andintolerablelabor.
Thecolonistshaddifferentreasonsforsettlinginthesetwodistinct
regions.TheNewEnglandregionwasamorereligiouslystrictyetdiversearea
comparedtothatoftheChesapeakeBay.Thedevelopmentofreligioninthetwo
regionscamefromseparateroots.AfterHenryVIIIandtheRomanCatholic
Churchbrokeawayfromeachother,anewgroupofEnglishreformerswas
createdcalledthePuritans.ThePuritanscamefromprotestantbackgrounds,after
beinginfluencedbyCalvinisticideas.WhentheirreformswerethwartedbyKing
JamesIofEngland,theyfledtotheNewWorldinwhatisnowknownasthe
"GreatMigration."thePuritanswerethenjoinedbyQuakers,Protestants,and
CatholicsinthereligiouslydiverseNewEnglandarea.Thesediversereligious
factionswereallowedtolivefreelybutunderthelawsofNewEngland.Itwas
duetothisreligiousfreedomthatthesepeoplecametoescapereligious
persecutionbackhome
.ThesettlersoftheChesapeakeandNewEnglandcolonies,wereforeignersto
theland,establishedtwoexceptionalbutcontrarysocietiesduetothediversityof
Englishcitizens.ChesapeakeandNewEnglandcolonies,althoughfromthe
sameEnglishbackground,developeddistinctionsfromtheverystartofthe
sixteenthcentury;theirreasonsforfleeingEurope,politicalstandards,familylife,
religionsanduseofland.WithKingJamesIofferingacharterfortheVirginia
CompanyofLondon,ajointstockcompany,topromptasettlementintheNew
World,profitfilledEnglishmencouldntrefusethisgraciousproposal.Apromise
ofgoldenlandsandanewpassageroutethroughAmericatotheWestIndies,
theheartymenembarkedonajourney,whichtotheireyesseemedtobethrough
thevastunknown.ArrivingontheshoresofChesapeakeBayin1606,soonthey
wereattackedbyIndians.FinallyhavingtosettleontheJamesRiver(namedin
honoroftheirKing)theVirginiaCompanywasforcedtomaketheirhomewithina
mosquitoinfestedandunhealthilyregion.Beginningtheirarduoussearchfrom
theonset,thestubbornmensearchedforgolddayandnightthroughstarvation,
malnutrition,anddisease.AccordingtoCaptainJohnSmiththesegoldseekers
wereallmeninhopeofrepaymentforcommencingonthejourney.Hedescribed
thesceneasdiligentmendigging,washing,refining,andloadinggoldallin
silence.Livingfromhandtomouthinducedthegoldminerstoonlybeableto
providedselveswithsuppliesforthefollowingyear.TheprofitfilledEnglishmen
oftheVirginiaCompanyvoyagedtoAmericawiththeirheartsinhopeforgold
andtheirmindssetondiscoveringthispreciousmetalandnothingelse.
MeanwhilebackinEngland,aroundthe1530sKingHenryVIIIhadbrokenties
withtheRomanCatholicChurchandwasanointinghimselftheHeadofthe
ChurchofEngland.Soonin1603KingJamesIbecometheheadoftheChurch
ofEnglandcausingthePuritanstoopposehimasaspiritualleader.Sincethey
couldresisthimasaspiritualleaderandthenwouldcertainlydefyasapolitical
leaderaswell.Therefore,KingJamesImenacedthenoutoftheland.Compelled
tosailtoAmericainsearchofreligioustolerationtheseEnglishsoonfounded
Plymouthcolony.Theywereseparatistknownaspilgrims,settledthelandin
strongbeliefthattheywouldbefreeofreligiousprosecution.ComingtoAmerica
forentirelyoppositemotivations,causethesetwocoloniesbegantocontrastfrom
theverystart.Controllingthecoloniesdealingwithseparateperspectivesonlife,
GovernorJohnWinthropoftheMassachusettsBaycolony(partofNewEngland)
andGovernorWilliamBerkleyoftheVirginiacolony(partofChesapeake)hada
differenceinviewsontheupraisingofacommunity.AccordingtoJohnWinthrop
allpeopleareequal;therich,thepoor,themean,andthepowerful.WithGodat
thecenteroftheNewEnglandcolony,thepilgrimsbelievedinworkingtogether
asoneforthegloryofGod,wherethecolonistatChesapeakebelievedthatone
mancouldbebetterthenanother.In1630whileGovernorWinthropwasaboard
theArbellahewritesthatthecommunityneedstoupholdafellowshiptogether.
Theirunityshouldbeabidedbyonespiritofpeaceforeveryoneisaworthy
servantofChrist.OntheotherhandGovernorBerkeleyviewpointwasquite
variedformthatofWinthrops.InastatementtohiscouncilondefendingVirginia
againstaDutchattackin1673,Berkeleyaddresseshiscouncilbytellingthem
thatitistheirdutytotakepartinawartoguardtheircountry.Healsoreferstohis
ownpeopleasservants,Negroes,andmenindebt,whiledeclaringthatthese
peoplearenotgoodenoughtodefendthecountry.Heisclearlyputtingpeopleof
hiscolonyinsocialorder,whichisexactlywhattheGovernoroftheNewEngland
coloniespreachedagainst.Thesetwoadequategovernorsstrivingtoachievethe
bestfortheircolonieshelpedthegrowthoftwoseparatesocieties.Both
governorscomingfromhighlydifferentbackgroundsandmindsets,simulates
reasonsforthedifferentviewpointsontheformulationofeachtheNewEngland
andtheChesapeakecolonies.Thedifferencesinfamilylife,religionandland
drawsthefinallinewerethesetwodistinctcoloniesdivideindifferenceand
development.Fleeingfromreligiouspersecution,thepilgrimsmigratedtoNew
Englandincloseknitfamilies.In1635thepassengersheadingtoAmericafor
NewEnglandrangedfromchildrentoteenagers,tomiddleagedmen.Theships
listrecordbyDeputyClerkJohnPorterclarifiesthattheemigrantsstationedto
resideintheNewEnglandcolonieswerefamiliesconsistingofmemberswitha
varietyofages.Therefore,theNewEnglandcolonieswereunitedfromthestart
withawelloffamilylifestyle.Onanothernote,theshipslistforpassengers
comingtoVirginiain1635includedmostlymenagesfrom14toafew51year
olds.Witha6to1men/womenratio,revealsthatfamilylifewasnotanecessity
fortheVirginians.Diseaseragedsettlementsgrewslowlythroughthe
Chesapeakearea,causingmanyunmarriedmalesthatleadtoweakfamilyties
andlowreproductionrates,duetothescarcityofwomen.NewEngland
emphasizedonreligionandfamilyvalues,whileChesapeakeconcentratedon
slavery,servantsandprosperingtheirtobaccoindustries.Equalityandintegrity
leadtheNewEnglandcoloniestowidespreadsurvival.InMassachusetts,an
ArticleofAgreementwasformedforthecitizenstoembrace.Thearticles
incorporatealist,whichembodiescovenantsforthecommunitytofollowinorder
toacquirealivelihood.Thearticlesstatethesocietiesshouldbecombinedofall
inhabitants,richorpoor.Eachpersonwillpossessplantinggroundsandalotfor
ahouse,whilecommittingtoawalkwithChrist.ThecitizensofNewEngland
wereleveledheaded,conservative,andorganized.Meanwhile,arebellionin
Chesapeakeagainstthegovernorwasabouttosetforth.NathanielBacon,a29
yearoldindenturedservantlaunchedanattackagainstWilliamBerkeleydueto
histolerationwiththeIndiansandtheirfrustrationwithbrokenexpectationsof
acquiringland.Baconconfirmedadeclarationjustifyingthereattackagainst
Berkeleyin1676,byremarkingthatsomecitizensarebuildinglargerestatesand
takingthepublictreasure,whilethey(heindenturedservants)makebyon
merelynothing.Comparingthesetwocontroversialcoloniesexhibitsthatthe
citizensofeachcommunityleadexhaustivelydifferentlifestyles.WhileNew
Englandcivilianswerefabricatinglawsofagreementtolivebybasedaround
therefaith,thepeopleofChesapeakearefindingwaystogoagainsttherefaith
byattacktheirgovernor,indicatesthatthetwocoloniesmainfocusesarenot
nearlyrelated.Usingslavesandindenturedservantsforfarmingandcultivating
thelandofChesapeake,theVirginiansthrivedonhighprofits,largeestates,
utilizingslavery,fightingIndiansandattackingslaves.Ontheotherhand,the
NewEnglandcolonieswerecenteredaroundaChristianbackground,grounded
onfamilyties,communityunity,andflourishingfromadiversepopulation.The
NewEnglandandtheChesapeakecolonies,bothsettledbytheEnglishbecome
twoentirelydifferentsocietiesbythebeginningoftheeighteenthcentury.Asa
outcomeofindividualisminthetwosocieties,avastdifferenceinthe
developmentoccurred.Rangingfromfamilylifetoreligion,toinitialincentivefor
escapingtheoldpracticesofEngland,tostylesofgoverning,thesetwo
communitiesadvancedinoppositedirections,butalsoemergedasbecoming
uniquesuccessfulsocietiesoftheEnglishorigin.
The Chesapeake region were the Virginia and the Maryland
Colonies.h
The New England Colonies were Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Virginia was statrted by the Virginia/London Company. They sent out
people to grow grapes and plant mulberry trees so that Virginia could
grow grapes, make wine and the mulberry trees would have silkworms
so Virginia could make wine and silk, this was Jamestown., NO, I
AM SERIOUS. The attempt proved disasterous and most of the
people died due to disease , no food or indians. John Smith saved the
colony once but the colony was always about to collaspe until John
Rolfe, the guy who married Pocohantas, discovered you could grow
tobacco in Virginia. The tobacco plant saved Virginia as people got
rich off the stuff.
Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore/the Calvert family as a haven
for Catholics. The Chesapeake colonists lived close to water. The
nearer the better, since there were no roads all crops were shipped
out by water, they built wharfs/warves--piers to facilitate this. The
farms eventually became Huge Plantations or sufficent farms. They
grew a cash crop--tobacco which they sold to England. They made or
produced all the food they needed. Cities were very small in this area
the #1 occupation was farming--99% of the people.
New England colonies were always founded for religious reasons.
Pilgrims or Puritans or the people of every New England colony
forming a new colony after escaping from Puritan Massachusetts.
The land in New England is very rocky and not able to grow large
crops like they were in the south. Since farm land was at a premium
most of the people lived in towns and went out from the town to the
fields to grow their own crops. These were subsistance crops,
meaning the people ate what they grew, they were not able to have
enough for export. The season for raising crops is not as long as it is
in the south either. They raised root crops, beets, carrots, rutabagas,
turnips--yuck. Also ate carnberries, raised chickens, turkeys, ate
venison. People in New England tended to live in villages, also helped
in their religious beliefs, these people were very religious. The people
in the Chesapeake region were not radical as as these people,
remember the Salem Witchcraft Trials? Yep, New England. The
people of New England had to develop other industries to earn a
living. Fishing, whaling--whale hunting, and trading--yankee traders?
rember Chesapeake Big Plantations--cash Crop--tobacco. No /few
towns, everyone lives close to waterways.
New England--small farming--towns--fishing--ship building-trading for a living. Hope that helps
New England was settled by Families seeking a new land, a Promised land
where they could raise generations who shared their religious beliefs &
values. New England was settled by Puritans who were mostly middleclassed, skilled in a trade, well educated by the standards of the time,
education was the bulwark of their lives for how could one read the Bible if
one did not know how to read?
New England's founders founded cities though their cities were smaller
than the towns & villages of today, 2007. In fact the population of a
Colonial town could fit inside a modern sports stadium with plenty extra
seats. New England life was centered and villages, towns, cities, even
thoiugh farming was important, integreal in fact since New England
intended to be independent of England, able to grow its own food, and in
time manufacture what it needed.
The Chesapeake was settled by Gentlemen Adventurers seeking fast &
easy profits from Gold and precious metals and stones, none of which
were to be found in Virginia. They did discover the Golden Weed, Tobacco
(why the ignored the other weed is a mystery). Tobacco is a labor intensive
crop thus these Gentlemen Adventurers imported at first white and then
black 'indentured' labor, and while whites were eventually able to struggle
out of their contracts, the blacks became an underclass of slaves.
The descendents of the Gentleman-Adventurers became an Aristocratic
bunch who learned to exploit the breaking of new land for farms and they
did diversify their crops, mostly finding other crops that again required lots
of labor and again resorting to the brutality of slavery. In doing so the
Chesapeake Aristocrats laid the foundation for future failure for it was a
foul foundation::: slavery.
In the Chesapeake one found plantations, by nature private villages, a
great house or two, more modest homes for white and black craftsmen,
and hovels for the farm workers. Actual towns or Cities were scarce in the
Chesapeake, mere administrative posts for the neccessary items of life.
Whereas the New Englanders encourage self sufficiency, those of the
Chesapeake were happy getting goods from far away England. They built
up a false prosperity, an endless round of buying on credit speculating on
future crops of tobacco and later on rice & indigo and finaly cotton.
Chesapeake became borrowers, they lived outwardly ostentatious lives but
again on a weak foundation.
New Enlanders preached self sufficiancy, their towns & cities grew as their
farms began exporting grain, and when smart New Englanders began
importing 'surplus' sugar from the Caribbean and turning it into Rum &
Molasses they had products that England and Europe wanted. IN time
New England founded a New Nation due tho their superior foundation.
Free labor, families, forward thinking. In doing so they kept the
Chesapeake from sinking into the swamps they had stolen from the
Natives.
As for religion, the Chesapeake settled by seekers iof easy wealth tended
to be irreligious but because the times did not permit atheism and no one
even now in 2007 wants tio be caught out as not being in sync with God &
Jesus, most clung to Church of England/Anglican Traditions. In the
Chesapeake Sunday Church provided recreation ;; ;; it was a social
gathering a good opportunity for singles to meet & mingle or for working
girls to ply their trade (s) and men to chat and maybe toss dice or play
cards. Harrassing the usually inept minister also made for amusement.
Since the Head Church determined who was Minister, this was acceptable
practice. One was still in Awe of God & Jesus, but Jesus the guy delivering
the message was a Putz!!
New England also treasured Sunday as a day for Socializing, but their
Preachers had to answer to their congregation, had to be popular or they
could lose their job, and so New England produced Dynamic educated
brilliant Ministers many of whom worked to better society, more so by
counceling the natural politicians than by becoming politicians themselves.
But their power was openly acknowledged. Oddly enough for a society with
a religious foundation, the New Englanders practiced seperation of Church
& State early on.
The differences are as follows. The New England Settlements were Puritan
and Pilgrim based. The were centered around family units and the church
and actually had skilled craftsman, farmers who knew what they were
doing when they arrived. They wrote the Mayflower Compact before going
ashore to govern themselves as they realized that they were outside of
English colonial areas. Fewer died up north due to the colder weather.
Less diseases, mosquitos, the family units and they didn't waste time
looking for gold.
Similarities: Native American groups helped both. Both fought with them
later
The Chesapeake region of the colonies included Virginia, Maryland, the New
Jerseys (both East and West) and Pennsylvania. In 1607, Jamestown, the first
English colony in the New World (that is, the first to thrive and prosper), was
founded by a group of 104 settlers to a peninsula along the James River. These
settlers hoped to find gold, silver, a northwest passage to Asia, a cure for syphilis,
or any other valuables they might take back to Europe and make a profit. Lead
by Captain John Smith, who "outmaneuvered other members of the colony's
ruling and took ruthlessly took charge" (Liberty Equality Power, p. 57), a few
lucky members of the original voyage survived. These survivors turned to the
local Powhatan Indians, who taught them the process of corn- and tobaccogrowing. These staple-crops flourished throughout all five of these colonies.
New England was north of the Chesapeake, and included Massachusetts Bay
Colony, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven (which soon
became part of Connecticut). The New Englanders were largely Puritan
Separatists, who sought religious freedom. When the Church of England
separated from Catholicism under Henry VIII, Protestantism flourished in
England. Some Protestants, however, wanted complete separation from
Catholicism and embraced Calvinism. These "Separatists" as they were called,
along with persecuted Catholics who had not joined the Church of England,
came to New England in hopes of finding this religious freedom where they
would be free to practice as they wished. Their motives were, thus, religious in
nature, not economic. In fact, New England settlers reproduced much of
England's economy, with only minor variations. They did not invest largely in
staple crops, instead, relied on artisan-industries like carpentry, shipbuilding, and
printing.
The Chesapeake and New England attracted different types of settlers and, by
1700, the populations differed enormously. In New England, the population was
almost entirely English and white, with the Congregational Church formerly
established. Devoutly religious families, including Puritans, Quakers, and
Catholics made up a large percentage of the population. It was due to the
reputation the New England colonies had as a place of religious freedom that
these people came. In the Chesapeake, however, the population was a majority
black-slaves, that is. With the boom in the tobacco industry, plantation owners
relied on the cheap labor slaves or indentured servants provided. Slave trade
itself became a leading industry. Only because of the economic gold mine in the
Chesapeake were slaves brought in, therefore, the economy affected the overall
population of the area vastly.
The religion of the two areas differed greatly as well. Because New Englanders
came to escape religious persecution, one would think that it would become a
land of complete tolerance. This was not the case, though. The New Englanders
were very religious-based, and claimed that they "were far more godly than all
other colonists" ("American Colonies", p. 3). Religion was family-based and with
extreme piety, There was one clergyman for every 600 people, the highest in the
New World. In the Chesapeake, religion was much less severe. The established
church was the Anglican Church, but only became so after 1692. The religious
tone was low-church, and many people (mostly slaves) did not participate in the
Anglican Church.
Yet another major difference caused by the founding purposes was the economy
of the two. As mentioned previously, the Chesapeake economy revolved around
the tobacco industry, which paved the way for other industries as well. Slave
trade relied fully on the tobacco plantation owners as a market to sell the slaves
to. In addition, the tobacco raised enough to finance the importation of indentured
servants, who would then go to work the tobacco, increasing the production
further. It became a cycle, with the result being the ever-increasing production
and sale of the tobacco. New England did not "have all of it's eggs in one basket"
quite like the Chesapeake. The economy was based on fishing, shipbuilding, and
farming. The farming in New England was done on a much smaller scale,
however. Because the religion (and society) was so family-oriented, farms were
usually just large enough to feed one's family, with a small surplus. It was no
where near the size of the vast plantations in the Chesapeake. This was simply
because New England's focus was not on economic gain.
Clearly the Chesapeake and the New England regions did differ in numerous
ways. These differences included population, religion, and economy. But also the
differences were on a wide-scale range involving almost every aspect of the
society, they all sprouted from one initial difference between the two: the very
reason the colonists came. It was due to these ideals held by the groups that
lead them to create the contrasting societies. Therefore, it cannot be denied as a
significant cause of the contrast. As shown, this purpose was carried out in the
society. The fortune-seeking economists in the Chesapeake created a society
based around this ideal, which affected their entire community. The New
Englanders, looking for religious freedom, sought to create a very different
society centered around a very different ideal, that of religion, not economic gain.
Obviously, then, we can say that it because of these motives that the
Chesapeake and the New England regions of the New World became so different
by 1700.
Early English colonies in America hardly resembled the union of men and women
that would later fight against England and build a new country. In fact, until the
mid-eighteenth century, most English colonists had very little, if anything to do
with the settlers in neighboring colonies. They heard news of Indian wars and
other noteworthy events, not from the colony itself, but from England. The
colonies in the New World appeared completely different and the prospect of any
unity between them seemed impossible. The colonies in New England and the
Chesapeake exemplify the many differences in the culture and lifestyles of the
settlers, created mainly because of the fact that their founding fathers had held
separate intentions when they came to the New World. The New England and
Chesapeake colonies were both settled by immigrants from England, the New
England colonies being founded by the English from East Anglia, an area in
eastern England. Though this was an area thriving with small towns that they had
generally liked, they decided to flee England due to religious persecution.
Hundreds of families, men, women and their children, came in search of a New
World where they could practice their beliefs freely.
The northerners in New England held true to their belief that every man shall be
equal and no one should be enslaved, while the southerners in the Chesapeake
area strongly believed in the use of slavery. At the same time the New
Englanders worked to help end slavery by preaching to others about the
injustices, they worked diligently to make education in their society strong. Most
people in the towns were literate so that they could read their Bibles and study
them in detail with their friends and family. Some colonists were artisans or
merchants. Others were small-town farmers, making sure that every member of
the community had a reasonable share of Gods land. The northern colonies
were renowned for being rich in furs, timber and fish. They were especially noted
for developing into a very successful trading region. The New England colonies
made up the middle class society whose focal points were family, education and
religion. The society remained non-capitalistic, yet still buzzed with much activity.
On the other hand, the Chesapeake region had a cash crop get rich quickly
mentality. This aristocratic region consisted of Virginia and Maryland, two
colonies that seemed to be exceedingly materialistic. Evidently, their lives were
based more on their liquid assets than on God or family. The Englanders who
saw the opportunity to take advantage of the popularity of a brand new crop they
had discovered settled the Chesapeake area. These gold diggers were mainly
upper-class men of wealthy families aspiring towards coming to the New World to
create a large profit for themselves. These colonists were not fleeing England
seeking religious or social freedom, but clearly only to add more wealth to their
names. Tobacco soon became the primary crop seen growing on almost every
one of these wealthy mens plantations, which created tremendous amounts of
money to add to their fortunes. Of course almost every plantation had African
slaves working on the land. These colossal estates came to depend on their
slaves to run their farms and slavery became a common, yet feared, way of life
for many Africans. Unfortunately for these Chesapeake colonies, due to swampy
land in much of the area, towns were not part of the landscape or lifestyle as they
were in the north. This area was a place of fierce competition with a very minute
sense of community, as opposed to the thriving northern colonies surrounded
with warm and inviting community towns. The strong focus on family, education
or religion was not a main highlight in the lives of Chesapeake colonists, except
in Maryland, where the Calvert family did indeed form a haven for Catholics.
These two regions of the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies
did in truth share the common fact that their settlers were all of English origin. Of
course when they first set sail, even before they reached the New World, they
began to separate into two distinctly different societies already. The clearly
evident reason is because these pilgrims came to the New World each pursuing
something different. The New England settlers were longing to find a more
suitable land of opportunity where they could better their lives and gain religious
freedom. They wanted very much to create a society where they could focus on
their family, religion and education. Where as the Chesapeake settlers, they were
clearly hoping to strike gold in the New World. Many hoped they could improve
their social status even more by gaining large profits from growing and selling
such items as tobacco. The New England colonists came and made a quite
simple society and the Chesapeake colonists created a more aristocratic society.
Their society seemed to care more about their wealth and power more than
anything, where as the New England society grew to be one with important
focus. These two regions may have shared that same origin and spoken the
same English language, but they rarely spoke of similar things. Because of this
culture barrier, a separated north and south was created, causing two distinctly
different societies to evolve....