Compare And Contrast Massachusetts And Virginia

The colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts were very different places that attracted people with contrasting values. Virginians were risk-takers who sought wealth and fortune. Massachusetts settlers were families who wanted religious freedom. The colonies were structured differently and those who lived in them had distinct lifestyles. Personally, I would have preferred to live in Massachusetts because it was safer, self sustainable, had a strong sense of community, and the colonists did not squabble often with the Native population. Massachusetts was founded by the Massachusetts Bay Company and John Winthrop was the governor. It was formed as a Puritan colony and was supposed to be a gleaming illustration of what England’s society should look

The average age of marriage was 23 for women and 26 for men (http://www.austincc.edu/jdikes/Marriage%20Ways%20ALL.pdf). Puritans aimed to live lives that promoted fair treatment of husbands and wives in the home. “…his Government of his Wife should not be with rigour, haughtiness, harshness, severity; but with the greatest love, gentleness, kindness, tenderness, that may be” (The Obligations of a Wife, Primary Source). They tended to get married a bit later than in other colonies because every family member was needed to run the farm and marriage laws required the man to have certain property items in his possession before they tied the knot. Community life was fairly simple. People worked all day on their family farms, doing anything from cleaning to cooking to harvesting, depending on the age and gender of the person doing said work. On Sabbath no one worked and everyone was expected to attend one of the many Puritan churches. Neighbors looked out for each other, for better or worse. Admittedly, sometimes this lead to an entire family’s excommunication, but the colonists believed they were doing the right thing. At the same time, Virginians had a very different sense of community. In the beginning of their new lives, the colony was failing and men were starving. All too often, people ate corpses and even committed murder, so that they would have something to eat. National

Virginians took the Powhatan tribe’s help for granted and began treating them very poorly. Virginians often used violence to get what they wanted with the indigenous people. Eventually, their status progressed towards full blown enmity and they were sworn rivals. This hatred ended in the massacre of 347 colonists and many more Native people (Roark, 52). George Percy described the brutality inflicted upon the Powhatan people, “…it was Agreed upon to put the Children to death the which was effected by Throwing them overboard and shooting out their Brains in the war yet for all this Cruelty the Soldiers were not well pleased…” (A True Relation of Virginia, Primary source). These barbaric acts of violence not only show the poor relations between the colonists and indigenous populations, but also demonstrate the lack of value given to the life of a non-white person in Virginia. Unfortunately, Puritans also struggled to get along with Natives. They played a role in King Philip’s war, which was caused by rising tension between the two groups. It ended tragically in hundreds of deaths and the loss of the Wampanoag chief, King Philip (Roark, 92). If Massachusetts colonists had respected the wishes of the Wampanoag people, the war could have been avoided entirely. Sadly, poor relationships between settlers and Native people were quite common in seventeenth century