Differences Between Middle Colonies And New England Colonies

Throughout the era of exploration and colonization, British America evolved into three distinctive areas: the Southern/Chesapeake colonies, the Middle Colonies, and the New England Colonies. Each region was colonized due to different motives, exported different commodities, and developed distinct social structures.
The principal motivation for settling the Southern and Chesapeake colonies was the promise of riches such as gold. The English Crown and colony proprietors saw the gold and silver that the Spanish conquistadors had procured in South and Central America and sought to increase their revenue by establishing colonies with profitable mines as well. Although they found no gold in the Chesapeake region, colony proprietors realized that

In the Chesapeake colonies, life was dominated by the plantation economy. There was a decidedly unequal distribution of skill and wealth, as the minority of the great planters dominated the lives of both the common white planters and the African slaves. Opposition to the great planters by common freedmen was seen in Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676, and although the shift to slave labor lessened tensions between white planters somewhat by pitting them both against the “inferior” slaves, plantation society remained a highly rigid and segregated social hierarchy. On the other end of the spectrum, the New England colonies operated on a much more egalitarian social structure. The New English colonies were based around town systems rather than plantations. More condensed living quarters promoted a sense of community and encouraged the building of public schools and churches. Churches were a vital part of New England, where the society was centered on Puritan values and Christian education. New England had by far the smallest slave population of all the colonies of British North America; slaves made up approximately 2% of the New English population. Many colonists were simply too poor to buy slaves and therefore employed the labor of their sons and daughters on farms. Additionally, land distribution was roughly equal; most families owned around 100 or 200 acres of land, which was large enough for a farm but not for a plantation. This kept the New England society from developing into a plantation society where those who held the most land dominated affairs. The social structure in the Middle Colonies differed with each colony. For example, in Pennsylvania, the Quakers believed in religious equality and toleration, and therefore did not support a religious establishment that dominated affairs. Pennsylvania was mostly settled by middle-class farmers who cultivated wheat and raised livestock for export. In New York, however,