Chesapeake Region Dbq Analysis

During colonial America, the New England and Chesapeake regions were both regions that have made an impact on the American society today. Settlers of each region came from England looking to accomplish certain goals they had established. The colonies of New England were primarily settled by Puritans who wanted to spread and unify their religion, while settlers settling in the Chesapeake region were in search of wealth and economic gain. Although both regions started to develop at almost the same time, there were many differences in their development due to various factors, including social, economic, and religious factors.

Socially, settlers in the New England and Chesapeake regions had many differences. The Chesapeake region had more young settlers who primarily occupied the role of indentured servants (Doc C), while the New England region had many more families who migrated together (Doc B). Men were far more common than women in the Chesapeake region, especially in Virginia, whereas in New England, there were almost as many men as there were women. Due to this,

the establishment of communities was very effective in New England as they were not only socially stable, but they expressed the idea of unity among settlers, contradictory to what was occurring in the Chesapeake. This is because the many indentured servants arriving in Virginia were independent and were not interested in permanent settlement in the region.

Economic factors have also played a major role in the divergent development of the two regions. Settlers in the New England experienced long winters with thin and rocky soils, making it very difficult for agriculture to take place. While there was still some small-scale farming, it was not very effective and it required the settlers to resort to other measures for food production and survival. Before industrial processes started to widely expand, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade were common near the coastline while lumbering and distilling took place elsewhere. Mid-17th century manufacturing efforts slowly became more and more common, and New England started to become an industrial region, especially with the use of iron technology and water power. In the Chesapeake region, however, it was very much different. Many of the original Jamestown settlers were looking to gain wealth, and they aimed to do that by obtaining gold. (Doc F). As they soon realized gold could not be found, they had to find different ways to boost their economic status. As the Chesapeake lands had fertile soils and long, hot summers, unlike New England, agriculture was much more common. Tobacco, after it was introduced by John Rolfe, became a very important cash crop and was the main factor of the economic success in Jamestown. However, tobacco cultivation slowly started to reduce the soil quality, and farmers were forced to find more land in order to continue their cultivation. Affluent plantation owners established their plantations throughout the land, using indentured servants for labor. However, there was not any more land available for the servants after their service term was over, so they had to find new lands in the West, but many became poor because of this (Doc G). As a result, there came to be a major gap between the wealthy and the poor in Virginia. This was not the case in the New England colonies as there was an increased sense of unity between the settlers, far more than what the Chesapeake settlers had. For example, the Articles of Agreement was a plan for a town in Massachusetts, and it stated that everyone would have a fair share of land and they would all work together in unity (Doc D). Also, the Wage and Price Regulations in Connecticut helped to strengthen the New England traditions of community, family, and Christianity as it strived to create a fair economic society by making sure the wealthy were not exercising authority that would “impoverish” their neighbors (Doc E). This is the exact opposite of the situation that was occurring in the Chesapeake region because many settlers, especially in Virginia, were complaining about wealthy plantation owners who were using all their wealth for themselves and deeming themselves as having a high level of authority because of it (Doc H).

Religion, another factor in the dissimilar development of the two regions, became very important in shaping the colonies, especially the ones in New England.

Puritans who were persecuted in England sought religious freedom in order to freely practice and express their religion. The Separatists, as they were known, were looking for a “new England”, and they eventually ended up breaking away from the Anglican church. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, stated that he wanted to establish towns/communities which would be looked upon by the Americans (city on a hill) (Doc A) and ones that would express the religious beliefs and values of Christianity (Doc D). In the Chesapeake colonies, many of the settlers were a part of the Church of England, but they did not have as much religious diversity as did the New England colonies, resulting in the unique development between the

two.

Settlers in both the Chesapeake and New England regions experienced many differences in their overall development. Even though a large number of them came from England, variations in lifestyles and motivations for settlement led to the evolution of two distinct societies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, English settlement of North America slowly became prominent. The Great Migration, as it was known, involved over 20,000 Puritans/Separatists fleeing to New England due to religious conflicts. Similar to this, many English settlers migrated to the colonies due to economic changes in England, opportunities for increased wealth, and indentured servitude, all of this not only involving the Chesapeake region but other regions of America as well. As they settled in the colonies, various economic, religious, and social factors had created two very different societies, and as they started to develop, there came to be a clear difference between the two.