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The northern and southern colonies
Religious freedom essay puritans
The northern and southern colonies
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North vs. South
The northern colonies badly needed the services their isolation denied them. The people needed doctors and surgeons and carpenters and blacksmiths. And although they could survive without many of the manufactured goods available only at high prices, they dreamed of owning these things. They dreamed also of luxury items-perfume, spices, silk cloth.
It became obvious very early in the colonial experience that Spain would not make goods available to the northern colonies. It was, therefore, natural that the colonists should welcome foreigners who might provide them with the things they wanted. Thus began the first really severe threat to Spanish sovereignty in the American possessions.
In the northern colonies the settlers made most of the things they needed. They did not have the money or credit to import items from England. The southern colonists exported tobacco and more of them had credit with England and were able to import much of what they needed.
In the North they learned to supply their own needs. Grease was saved--it was used for lighting and making soap.
They learned to use wood in place of iron for many years. Clothing was made in the North, which involved weaving the cloth as well as fitting, cutting, and sewing the garments. In the South they imported garments from England (although some feared catching the bubonic plague from hidden fleas).
In the New England colonies, where the Puritans were, the church was the center of everything. The clergy was in complete political control.
The Puritans believed in punishing sin. When someone was caught in sin they were publicly punished. Puritans believed strongly in humiliation. They locked the guilty people in the stocks or the pillory (a frame with holes for head and hands) with a sign on them describing the sin--where everyone could see it. This was a big event. Schools were let out and people came from all around to see such sights. They would also dunk a person who was a gossip (or guilty of other such sins) from the end of a long log into a pond or lake.
Other more cruel punishment was carried out--not only in the North, but throughout the other colonies as well. The idea was that the criminal should be marked and humiliated. Whipping posts were used, flesh was branded with hot irons, and ears and hands were cut off.
One sad series of events of the early colonists involved the Puritans and their "witch hunts".
In the early eighteenth century consumer goods flooded American markets, the colonists needed to sell what they produced in order to purchase British goods that were beyond their ability to manufacture and therefore made them feel more a part of the British "empire of goods".
During the late 16th century and into the 17th century, European nations rapidly colonized the newly discovered Americas. England in particular sent out numerous groups to the eastern coast of North America to two regions. These two regions were known as the Chesapeake and the New England areas. Later, in the late 1700's, these two areas would bond to become one nation. Yet from the very beginnings, both had very separate and unique identities. These differences, though very numerous, spurred from one major factor: the very reason the settlers came to the New World. This affected the colonies in literally every way, including economically, socially, and politically.
Southern colonies were hilly coast with grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cans .also they had specific regions which gave way to religious freedoms.The founders of the Southern Colonies were, for the most part, out to make money. They brought their families, as did the New England colonists, and they kept their families together on the plantations.In the Southern Colonies and travel environment controlled social life. The Southern Colonies had a hard-and-fast three class system. Upper-class rich colony owners, middle-class small colony owners, lower class.The southern colonies were established early on after the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. At first, the south also relied on the forests and the water, but tobacco and cotton later emerged as cash crops. Initially, these crops were harvested by indentured servants, but with the growth of plantations, planters started to import slaves from Africa. In the South, there was a great divide between the rich and the poor. The Church of England was the dominant religion and the center of life for southerners. Laws were made by county governments and the economy centered around the large
Although the only explanation we were presented regarding the reasoning or motives of this colonization was the vague answer of Gold, God and Glory. Which from a general perspective is correct, although similar to various topics in history, there is much more then what we have originally thought. Likewise, Taylor explains how, “until the 1960s, most American historians assumed that the “the colonists” mean English-speaking men confined to the Atlantic seaboard.” Overall, after much research and information from various sources, I will explain the overall motives these countries had and how they intertwine with one another.
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.
In the north, machines, interchangeable parts, and mass production were fast becoming a way of life. Northerners began building factories for mass production. These first factories were used for making textiles and later evolved to manufacturing a wide variety of goods. This created several opportunities for jobs. And with immigrants flooding in from Europe, finding employment was no problem. The factory system was efficient and inexpensive for the north to employ a large work force.
The most important difference between the north and south was the issue of slavery. The South was primarily agricultural, and the southern economy was based upon the existence of large family farms known as plantations. The plantation economy relied on cheap labor in the form of slaves to produce tobacco and cotton. Farmers on the plantation did not do the work themselves; they needed slaves in order to make the largest amount of money possible. The North, however, was primarily industrial in nature. The North believed that all men should be able to work and support themselves and their families, regardless of color. They also felt that if a man were happy doing his job, then he would be more productive. Therefore, both he and the business would make more money.
Godbeer, Richard. The Salem Witch Hunt A Brief History with Documents. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins 2011
The three colonial regions blossomed quite differently in terms of economy. English colonists first settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Failing to find gold, however, people in the southern colonies grew tobacco and rice as marketable commodities. Since tobacco plantation was labor-intensive, a large number of the population was indentured servants and black slaves. Because of the high mortality rate and unbalanced sex ratio, headright system was created in order to attract more settlers. In New England, due to the poor soil condition, people mainly relied on fishing, and lumber. Also, the Navigation Acts stimulated shipbuilding industry. The Middle colonies were based on growing grains and trading with European nations as well as other colonies.
Economic concerns of the British caused the colonization of British North America. Such economic concerns included the opportunity to acquire gold, silver, a North American waterway that would lead directly to China and the Indies, and the prospect of countering Spain's dominance in North America (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition to these economic reasons for colonization, the English were also seeking to obtain the essential "raw materials" in America that they had been previously buying from other European countries for exorbitant amounts of money and gold (Boorstin et al. 34). Great Britain also sought to solve other economic problems through American colonization. For example, England needed to replenish some of its diminishing materials and assets, generate another "market" to export its cargo and merchandise, maintain its powerful navy and "merchant marine" through business with new American colonies, and to provide a new place for the unemployed to settle rather than escalating populace/crime and the economic burden in its own cities (Boorstin et al. 34).
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
In 1534, King Henry VIII formally instigated the English Reformation. He therefore passed the Act of Supremacy, which outlawed the Catholic Church and made him “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England” (Roark, 68). Puritans were looking for a more Protestant church and received what they wanted. Along with it, came the King’s total control over the Church. This is what the Puritans didn’t want. Puritans believed that ordinary Christians, not a church hierarchy, should control religious life. They wanted a distinct line between government and the Church of England. Puritans also wanted to eliminate the customs of Catholic worship and instead focus on an individual’s relationship with God developed through Bible study, prayer, and introspection (Roark, 68).
...ty men and women had been accused of being witches. Of those, nineteen of them plead innocent and were hung. One man refused to acknowledge the accusation and refused to enter a plea. He was legally crushed to death. Of the ones who plead guilty and were sent to jail, many contracted illnesses and later died. The outbreak of hysteria caused many to suffer and die, families to break apart, and a society to succumb to the whims of children. In the Puritans quest to create a perfect society based on pure beliefs only created a society ripped apart by tension, anxiety and fear.
...y from the Church of England. Puritanism was weakened at its core because of this strict and finicky hierarchy within its church. It drove people away, leaving it in great need of loyal members. “In effect, strict religious purity was sacrificed somewhat to the cause of wider religious participation” (Kennedy, 73).
In the early 17th century, British colonizers began arriving in the New World in hopes of expanding their territorial domain. By the 18th century, Spanish colonizers had established trading posts and missions in the New World, covering a vast expanse of land that extended beyond even England’s colonial holdings. When the British arrived, they spurred on Indian depopulation and African and European immigration. The arrival of the Spanish resulted in near Indian extinction and a burgeoning international trade. Though Spain had an advantage of a century over Britain, both nations used the New World’s resources to further their mercantile goals, in the process, ravaging the native populations; however, Spain’s missionary efforts were more successful and the location of their respective colonies resulted in a monopoly of different economic commodities.