Differences Between New England And Chesapeake

Despite New England and Chesapeake regions both having similar English settlers, these two colonial areas developed vastly unique identities because of politics, economics, and the reasons for settling.The Chesapeake region includes the colonies of Virginia and Maryland where the New England colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. One of the main differences between the two regions was the reasonings behind the settlements which was the causation of other differences. The New England colonies were settled primarily for religious reasons with groups such as the Pilgrims and the Puritans. The Pilgrims were the first to settle and they settled in Plymouth because they wanted to separate from the
Church of England and they were facing religious persecution. Whereas the Puritans wanted leave England to have a purer form of the Anglican Church but they did not technically separate from the Church of England. The Puritans considered themselves the beacon for the rest of Europe as they believed they were model colonists. (Doc.A) This was vastly different from motives to settle in the Chesapeake Bay regions; these were mostly settled for commercial reasons as they were given a charter from King James . Settlers believed that there was gold in this region so people voyaged because they believed that they would get rich quick in the New World with the mining, they were not planning on long-term settlements. Therefore because of these varying reasonings fro migration,two unique demographics came two these two regions. In the Chesapeake Bay region it was mostly single young men with very women and families because they just wanted to work on mining.(Doc 3) In New England it was the opposite as it was many families of various ages and others in the congregation. Many of these settlers had more varied skills than just farming and some were educated.(Doc 2) After discovering that there was no Gold, settlers in Virginia were struggling as living there was rough because of the mosquitoes, dysentery, and constant Native American attacks. Jamestown went through a starving time in the winter of 1609 until John Rolfe introduced tobacco farming which soon became the primary cash crop grew in the colonies.(Doc 6) The economic system is the south was agrarian focusing on plantation agriculture. When the headright system was introduced, this plantation agriculture was only further perpetuated as indentured servants were mostly used as to labor the plantations. The headright system's main purpose was to populate the Southern colonies. More labor was still needed, so soon African slaves were introduced. An Agrarian economy thrived in Virginia and Maryland due to the fertile soil. In New England farming was not viable because of the infertile rocky land so they focused on more manufacturing and trading as there was more job specialization. Some of the primary industries were fishing and timber. Both the Chesapeake Bay region and the New England colonies had forms of self government; in 1619 there was the Virginia House of Burgesses and in 1620, in Massachusetts they developed the Mayflower Compact. Although being similar, New England was more democratic as there was less of a defined hierarchy as there was . New England also had town meetings and General Courts where they could voice problems and agree colony wide issues like wages.(Doc 6) As shown by their settlers, economies, and politics these two English colony regions emerged into two contrasting cultures in America’s history.Although they aren't as immensely different, these regions’ differences still resonate in today’s time.