As people began to settle in America they started to form colonies based around their religious beliefs. In the Chesapeake, Maryland, a proprietary colony was in the possession of a Catholic named George Calvert, while the Puritans founded New England. Chesapeake colonies were established mainly as commercial venues, tobacco being the main cash crop. Where as in New England, colonies were established as settlements for religion. Also the terrain in New England did not allow for an agricultural economy like the Chesapeake.
The colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia were a start of the new world for England. These were founded by similar people but, with their strikingly differences, grew into separate political, economic and social structures. Both settlements arose from over-crowdedness in England: people wanted a better life. Virginia was settled by men who were single and looking for opportunities and wealth. They were part of the Anglican religion.
There were many differences between the two colonies when it came down to their political systems. First, both colonies were greatly influenced by Governors. This influence can be seen by Sir William Berkeley when he describes that the, “Governors…laid the Foundation of our wealth and industry on the vices of men”. This statement shows that the governors that were in the Jamestown colony had a profound influence during the beginning of their colony. Another thing to note about the Jamestown colony was in Frethorne’s letter when he stated that, “we took two alive and made slaves of them… it was by policy”.
The three main colonies that we hear about are Virginia, Plymouth, and Massachusetts. These three colonies basically define all the others, as each group and its main founder either went for a personal financial gain or to escape religious persecution. Virginia was originally settled by Captain John Smith and grew into a successful trade colony through tobacco. Plymouth was originally founded by the Separatists and was lead by William Bradford. Eventually the dwindling Plymouth joined with Massachusetts which was originally Puritan based.
The New England colonies were first founded in the last 16th to 17th century as a sanctuary for differing religious groups. New England was made up of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. New Hampshire, however, was formed for economic reasons instead of religious ones. The Chesapeake region, which is made up of the colonies of Maryland and Virginia, was founded by the British colonies for the purpose of farming. However, by the 1700’s, despite both being settled by Englishmen, New England and the Chesapeake region had developed differently.
Both the Chesapeake colonies and the New England colonies were vital to Britain’s atlantic trade. They both had large populations and booming economies. However, they both eventually established their own cultures that were different from each other. The colonies’ differing beliefs, environments, and labor lead to the contrasting cultures. The New England Colonies were a Puritanical society, who preached against excess.
The New England and Chesapeake colonies were established during the early 1700s. Despite the population originating from England, the regions had distinct societies. This was due to the fact that many settlers voyaged to the New World in search of riches, to seek new lives, or for religious freedom. They differed socially, politically, economically, and geographically.
The 13 Colonies are broken down into 3 parts, Middle, Southern, and New England Colonies. There were many similarities and differences between all of the 13 Colonies. Many of them ranging from their climate and geography to the role women and African Americans played. A variety of people came from all around the world to the 13 Colonies for many different reasons. In the Middle Colonies, there was a very diverse population.
The middle colonies were made up of many different religions making it hard for one religion to be dominant. The New York and New Jersey colonies were both royal colonies while Pennsylvania and Delaware were both proprietary governments. The middle colonies mostly grew wheat and had flour mills where wheat was turned into flour and shipped to England. They also made iron ore products like plows, tools, kettles, nails, and large blocks of iron which were shipped to England also. Settlement patterns usually included single family farms.
Another difference was New England had shaped into a set of colonies that focused more on industry, while the Chesapeake colonies focused more on agriculture. Due to the long winters and poor rocky soil, New England only did small scale farming and focused on more on industries such as fishing, lumber, shipbuilding, and whaling. New England colonies were the most industrious of all colonies. Political wise, New England was made for religious freedom. New England colony towns were compact and held town meetings and white Puritan males with land were able to vote.
The New England families tend to travel together, they had a strong sense of community and really would watch out for one another like family. Education was important to the New England colony as so was religion and they were required to study the bible. The Southern Colonies were founded as an economic venture to create wealth where as for the New England colony were mainly about religious reformers and separatists. They were looking for a new way to praise God, that’s not to say that religion wasn’t important to the southern colonies because it was they just had a different way of going about it than the New England colonies. The religion in the southern colonies was more diverse.
Early American colonies were the base of what it is now known the United States of America. Although almost all of the colonies were from the same time period each colony differed from each other. Some of the colonies differed by their economic system and also by their way of running their colony, their government. Also, the colonies differed from their culture and their way they lived. In addition, the New England and the Chesapeake colonies were not the exception they also differed from each other.
There were a number of different purposes for the formation of the colonies, so the colonies that were resulted were not all the same. The Virginia Colony was formed to “make money from tobacco and to find gold for England” (Class 9/14). Contrastingly, Rhode Island was formed by Roger Williams to “escape the religious intolerance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony” (Cayton 47). Adversely, the Colony of Georgia was “initially made to make silk, which failed because the worms and trees did not work in tandem, so it turned into a settlement for debtors, and to buffer the valuable Carolina Colonies from
Colonial America by the mid 1700’s consisted of three major regions. However the New England area and the Southern regions were the most important. The New England region included the colonies of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Southern Region, also known as the Chesapeake Colonies, included the Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Although both the regions consisted of British colonies, each region differed in reasons for settlement, religious views, and economic activity and its connection to the amount of slavery in the region.
The Northern and Southern colonies in the seventeenth century had many differences and similarities. The differences go all the way back to the beginning as the United States was only separated into the Northern, middle and southern colonies. Each colony shared many differences mainly revolving around religion, politics, economics and social issues. The result of the way that they dealt with these issues in our country today. The Puritans established the Northern colonies and the southern colonies were ruled by The house of burgesses.
