The 17th century lifestyle in New England differed greatly from the lifestyle in the South and England at the time. New England colonists reaped the benefits of longevity and as a result, many families grew to be extremely large and developed. The colonists, primarily united under the shared goal of escaping religious persecution, established many small towns that were one of the first to exercise democracy. Education was also an important part of the New England lifestyle. Due to the climate, the economy in New England was vastly different compared to the South. Unlike the South, which mostly relied on cash crops, the New England economy was composed of many different things. These factors helped shape the New England lifestyle into one that was very different than that of the South. …show more content…
The codes varied by state but were generally very cruel, giving the owners of slaves rights such as being able to own all the offspring of slaves and the ability to inflict cruel punishments with little to no purpose.
Bacon’s Rebellion: An armed rebellion in 1676 led by Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia’s governor, William Berkeley, due to his refusal to drive the Native Americans away from Virginia for personal gain. William Berkeley and Native Americans were driven out of their homes and Jamestown was torched. The rebellion helped popularize slavery.
Halfway Covenant: A form of partial membership into the Puritan Church created in 1662 to popularize church membership. The unconverted children of existing church members could join the Puritan church. The halfway covenant helped lessen differences between normal church members and elect church members and weakened the power of the church.
William Berkeley: The governor of the Virginia colony from 1642 to 1652 and from 1660 until 1677. He promoted economic diversity and trade with the Indians residing in western Virginia, which resulted in Bacon’s
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 ...
Bacon was a man of opportunity and when a farmer that tried to trade with Native Americans was killed, it became his ticket to making it big in the New World. Only the governor, William Berkley, was allowed to trade with the Native Americans and nobody else. When the farmer was killed, William Berkley denied the upset colonists their desire to fight back. In doing so, it led Bacon to challenge his authority. He began to rally up colonists living in the backcountry where the colonists had no representation, no opportunity to achieve a fortune, and lived in a hostile environment. Everything those colonists did not have would be Bacon’s leverage in convincing them to support him and his cause. He had led 1,000 men to fight with him in hopes to rule the colony and would make changes to their benefit. William Berkley then branded Bacon as a rebel and sent for British troops. Bacon and his supporters then went into the backcountry where he eventually died of
James D. Rice’s Tales From a Revolution is perhaps one of the most important works on early Colonial America. This concise and informative narrative focuses on an important event in American History that has simply been overlooked by many Americans and historians, Bacon’s Rebellion, which occurred in 1676. This revolt played a significant role in the course of history at a pivotal time in early America. Rice focuses on much more than the actual revolt, giving a very vivid and easy to comprehend overview of the occurrences that took place before, during, and after this climactic and transformative event in history that would be one of the first of many rebellions and revolutions that would gradually pave the way for the foundation of America.
...able behavior far different from that of rebellion.” The colonists held their tongues as long as they could, but in 1676, their frustration grew too strong. Bacon and a thousand Virginians rebelled and overthrew the governor, in what is known as Bacon’s Rebellion. Shortly after the rebellion, Bacon died, and Governor Berkeley returned and viciously crushed the brigands.
In the 17th century, the British colonies still identified themselves as European, but as the colonies expanded and grew more populous, they developed differing geographic, social, and economic systems. This difference between New England, and Chesapeake, is caused by the motivations for settlement between the two regions. While the New England colonies were mainly settled for religious motivations, most notably by the Puritans, the Chesapeake colonies were settled for economic prosperity. Also, while the Chesapeake colonies were mainly settled by individual young men seeking a profit, the New England colonies were settled by families hoping to settle and expand.
Some of the similarities between the colonies was they all had good land and good resources. Example the new England colonies had good resources and good trade. Many people moved there hoping to profit from the trade. Some also came to practice their religion freely. They built their colonies starting off from small farms. The middle colonies settled for almost the same reason as the new England colonies. What they did different though from the new England colonies was that they had more opportunities to profit from. They had choices like trading and farming. The middle colonies had jobs like ship building and lumbering. The southern colonies were very different though they lived by a river and in the wetlands. Something similar though they
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.
The Stono Rebellion and Bacon’s Rebellion both thoroughly demonstrated the determination of the American people in the British colonies. Despite the brutal treatment that slaves received and the inadequate policies for protecting the farmers of Virginia, both groups of people rose up in distinguished acts of defiance. These revolutionaries both had the goal to make a point to the British government that they are to be feared and not trampled upon. The Virginian farmers did not accept the policies of William Berkley and instead of living under his power, they rose up to fight
During the 1600's, many people in the American colonies led very many different lives, some better than others. While life was hard for some groups, other colonists were healthy and happy. Two groups that display such a difference are the colonists of New England and Chesapeake Bay. New Englanders enjoyed a much higher standard of living. This high standard of New England's was due to many factors, including a healthier environment, better family situation, and a high rate of reproduction.
The New England colonies developed a close-knit homogeneous society and a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce. They developed this by creating a group called the New England Confederation. This focused on the protection of the people in the colony in the event of enemies trying to attack them. On page 49, it says “The primary purpose of the confederation was defense against foes or potential foes, notably the Indians, the French, and the Dutch.” They created this as a safety net for the New England colonies. Every part of the New England colonies had two votes, it didn’t matter on the size of the colonies. The ran it as their own because the king of the time didn’t care much for the colonies.
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 tobacco-growing. These staple-crops flourished throughout all five of these colonies.
The characteristics that came to shape the life in New England were the rocky, barren soil, the extreme climate and the rich waters. Although there was farming in New England , colonists looked to other means of survival. They looked to the rich waters for fishing and trade. The coastline of New England was very fertile with sealife. So, fishing became a way of commerce and trade providing a steady economy to New England. Because of the rocky soil and extreme climate, the colonists were forced to plant many different crops on a small pa...
The colonists had different reasons for settling in these two distinct regions. The New England region was a more religiously strict yet diverse area compared to that of the Chesapeake Bay. The development of religion in the two regions came from separate roots. After Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church broke away from each other, a new group of English reformers was created called the Puritans. The Puritans came from protestant backgrounds, after being influenced by Calvinistic ideas. When their reforms were thwarted by King James I of England, they fled to the New World in what is now known as the "Great Migration". The Puritans were then joined by Quakers, Protestants, and Catholics in the religiously diverse New England area. These diverse religious factions were allowed to live freely but under the laws of New England. It was due to this religious freedom that these people came to escape religious persecution back home. The New Englanders had a religion-based society and religion was based on family. As the Bible highly regarded family, it condemned adultery. Adultery was considered a punishable crime. Adulterers were marked as impure by a letter "A" stitched on their clothing, as in the book "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As religion was a very high priority in New England, it was very much less severe in the Chesapeake Bay region. The one established church in the region, the Anglican Church of Jesus Christ, was only then established in 1692, more than 70 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Slavery in America was a terrible thing, but no one knows about the laws that went along with slavery called slave codes. Slave codes were laws that were designated by each southern slave state (including Delaware even though it is considered a northern state) that were to be followed by slaves and their owners. Slave codes were closely associated with black codes. Black codes were in place for the free black people living in America, which was after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Slave codes were laws that were inhumane and were in favor of the white slave owners. Slave codes were also the foundation of the Jim Crow laws of the south which furthered the oppression of black people.
Everyday life in the United States is very different today than it was in the 1700's. Life was harder and the settlers did not have nearly as many luxuries as society has today. Some aspects of the colonial times that were different then are today include family, employment, and social activities. Life in the United States in the 1700's was filled with hard work, cooperation, and dedication to one’s land and family.