I believe colonial New England had more of an effect on the American character than Virginia for several reasons. First they promoted more of the values that have transcended into modern day America such as religious toleration, their educational ideas and their focus on the importance of family. And we shouldn’t forget the fact that the American Revolution began in New England so in essence the America we know today would not exist without New England. First off, colonial New England was more family based, as I believe America is today. When immigrants landed in New England they brought with them their families, expecting this place to become their permanent place of residence. Therefore their communities were more tight nit and more concerned with the promotion of values that would benefit the community as a whole. Whereas the Virginia colonies brought in more business oriented tobacco farmers who would establish communities in areas based on the Agricultural value of the land, therefore these communities were more focused on money, profit, and expansion rather than the...
A fundamental difference between the New England and Southern colonies was the motives of the founders. In 1606, the Virginia Company was formed, motivated primarily by the promise ...
The New England and Southern colonies, although they had their differences, did share a similar government system. However, the differences on a economic, religious, and social level overrode the similarity shared, making the two regions different nonetheless. The New England’ colonies focus on a business economy made them a central area of trade and commerce, but in the long run created society open to innovation and brought in new inventions. Whereas the Southern colonies’ focus on agriculture economy brought a sensation of profits for the mother country, but later attributed to the introduction of slave codes. Then, in the New England colonies, the religious restrictions increased tensions between the Separatists and Puritans, which later
Between 1491 and 1754, the New England, middle, Chesapeake, and southern colonies developed in a way such that they must be viewed as four distinct societies with interlacing interactions and beliefs. These different societies were shaped by the different labor systems and economic characteristics, varying groups of religious founders, and response to salutary neglect and British taxation.
The New England, Middle and Southern colonies were all English ruled, but yet very different. Among their distinctions, was the geography which played an important role in shaping these colonies. New England attracted Puritan farmers who wanted to separate from the Catholic Church. But because of the bone dry soil in the North, these colonists found they couldn't continue with their traditional ways of farming. However, with the immense amounts of water that surrounded them, they found that they could fish and trade. The Middle colonies on the other, hand had a moderate amount of everything. The fertile soil and the major seaports such as Philadelphia and New York, allowed these Middle colonists to make a living any way they saw fit. This led to the brisk development of the Middle Seaboard . Unlike the Middle and Northern colonies, the Southern colonies had large amounts of fertile land allowing for the development of large plantations. Because farming the plantations was the economic thrust for the South, towns and cities developed slowly. Thusly Geography greatly affected the lifestyles of these regions in the New World.
The New England and Chesapeake regions evolved into different societies because of the settler’s purpose for coming to America. In New England, the settlers desired religious freedom because they were unhappy with religion in England. These religious groups were mainly the Puritans and the Pilgrims. Both coming from the protestant sect of Christianity, these groups were very strict. The work ethic and strict moral code of the Puritans has helped to shape society in their region. Since these people came for religious freedom, it was mostly families that came over. This allowed schools to be built so the children could receive an education. As seen in the list of emigrants going to New England (Document B), a husband and wife would come over with their children, which could be in great abundance. Also showing how societies in New England were more based around families can be seen in the Articles of Agreement that were in place in Springfield, Massachusetts (Document D). This document says that the town should be composed of forty families, not a certain num...
When the English settled into the New World, they were split up into two sections, the Chesapeake region and the New England region. Although the English settled both, the two regions were severely different from each other when they were brought about. The New England and Chesapeake colonies differed in three ways: their reason for venturing over, economy, and population. These major differences were what shaped our nation today and what will continue shaping our nation in the future.
There were blacksmiths, ship builders and all other trades were taken advantage of by those seeking work. The main difference between these two areas (north and south) was the labor fields. In New England, the labor was paid for and in the south it was based off of free labor and indentured servants. The economic system grew in the south because of cash crops such as tobacco. The economic system grew in the north because of people’s want and desire to work hard and better the colony. Another main difference between the two were those who populated the area. In the north, the population was based on family units and 90% of them were decedents from people from before 1642. The families were stable. In the south, the population was mainly single white men in their twenties. The cause of this was the fact that Jamestown was set by the Virginia Company and sought a profit. Families seeking religious freedom founded
During colonial times, European nations quickly colonized the New World years after Columbus’ so called discovery. England in particular sent out a number of groups to the east coast of the New World to two regions. These areas were the New England and the Chesapeake regions. Later in the late 1700s, these two regions would go though many conflicts to come together as one nation. Yet, way before that would occur; these two areas developed into two distinct societies. These differences affected the colonies socially, economically, and politically.
Many of the New England colonists were white and the most prominent and religious families owned the best land. They had a system of self-government in these colonies which had representative town meetings across the colonies. The life expectancy of its citizens became longer than that of the Middle and Southern colonies because of the cooler climate they were accustomed to in Britain. The New England colonies were more industrialized and had built more towns than the others, causing the New England colonies social life to be more active than the other colonies and were centered around the towns. Many of the Southern colonists were primarily white and black, with the minority consisting of free men and women and the majority consisting of laborers and slaves. Many of the white men were plantation owners or smaller landowners who would employ indentured servants, meaning they had a tiered social class with the plantation owners at the top of the pyramid and slaves at the bottom of the pyramid. The Southern colonies created the House of Burgesses which was the first example of a representative government in America. The warm climate gave rise to a number of diseases that the colonists were not immune to causing their life expectancy to be shorter than that of the New England colonists. The Southern colonies were more rural and the towns were spaced apart further meaning the colonists did not interact with each other as much as the New England colonists. The Middle colonist’s population came from all around the world and the social class was mostly white. Social differences were clearly apparent here more than any other of the colonies. You had the Dutch landowners of New York, who were at the top of the social pyramid. You had the traders and merchants whom formed a middle class far below these landowners and not far
The development in the two societies was apparent throughout the start of each colony and through the events occurring throughout its developmental period. New England and the Chesapeake colonies arose as separate states with separate motives and separate resultants with each method having its pros and cons for certain people. The beginning motives, the decisions made throughout each settlements respective history, and the method of forming a better community surrounded the top grounds for different societies arising.
While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.
...ere more concerned about the commonwealth of the people due to their strong sense of community. Chesapeake government placed a harsh rule to ensure the survival of the settlers like the colony of Jamestown. New England had a diverse product due to poor soil and cold weather. They engaged in small scale agriculture, fishing, trading and shipbuilding. The Chesapeake regions had a warmer climate therefore it was more suitable to farm. The economic products that the Chesapeake region produced were tobacco and rice. The New England colonies were more of a community than the Chesapeake colonies. One of the reasons was that the settlers New England emigrated as a family and the Chesapeake emigrants were mostly males with the ambition to find gold and to own a large plantation; this resulted in mostly male population without female to enforce a sense of a real community.
Just like their religions, Massachusetts gave more power to the people and Virginia gave power to England. In the New England Handout, Mailer describes the difference further, “Unlike in Virginia where a governor is elected from a faraway company in London, and after 1624, by the Crown itself, the ‘freemen’ of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire elect their own governors.” (1) This information describes the contrast in the way a governor gets elected. In Massachusetts, the “freemen”, men who own land, get to vote for their governor, while Virginia’s governor gets appointed by the crown. Virginia’s government also consisted of the Governing Council, rich elites controlling everything, and the House of Burgesses, upper middle-class landowners. The main reason the governments of these colonies differ is the fact that the charter of Virginia created by the Virginia Company resides in England, or in other words it is controlled by the crown. On the other hand, Massachusetts’s charter, created by the Massachusetts Bay Company, resides in the colony, so the colony self-governs itself. This brings forth another comparison of the two colonies; the reason why they were founded.
The Chesapeake and New England attracted different types of settlers and, by 1700, the populations differed enormously.
Each of these had specific developments that were unique to the regions. Though there were many similarities in the development of the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies, they were very different: politically, socially, and economically. The three colonies all had comparable similarities, as they were all democratic. But they ran their democratic government in all different types of ways. For instance, the Middle Colonies had their government and church separated. The New England Colonies, however, were a Theocracy, which meant that the church controlled the government. The Southern Colonies had the least autonomy since they were an Oligarchy. This meant that the wealthy plantation owners controlled the government because they were the only people who could manage to pay for all their own expenses. Even though the three colonies were all self-ruled, they all had distinguishing recognize or treat someone or something as different