New England Vs Chesapeake Essay

The difference in development between the New England and the Chesapeake region settlements occurred because of political, social, and economic reasons. The New England region includes Connecticut, Massachusetts and the Chesapeake region includes Virginia and Maryland. These regions were largely settled by the English, though others such as the French and the Spanish settled in the Americas. Politically, there are many differences between the New England and Chesapeake regions. The New England region is based upon the "city on a hill" ideal created by John Winthrop. John Winthrop, a Puritan leader, was a stockholder brought to the Americas during the Great Migration. He had become the first governor of this region. This is a concept that means the ideal perfect society that everyone would want to copy. There was a major religious
interest in the New England region. A theocracy, a government run by the church, was practiced. Under the church, the Bible was widely known and read (Doc. A). In the Chesapeake region, the government was run very differently. There was no government here in the Americas that ran this region. Instead, the government was run by stockholders in England. The major joint-stock company in England was the Virginia Company. The Tidewater Elite were the important people, who were rich and white (Doc. G). Socially, in the Chesapeake region, there were many more men than women.
In result, woman ended up having many husbands. People in this region were often uneducated. In contrast, the people in the New England region were very educated. Schools were set up. Harvard was one of the first schools built to teach people interested in learning. Most people in this region wanted to be educated and were expected to be educated. This is because their government was based on the Bible and in order to understand the Bible, one must be able to read and write. These people were the most literate in the world at that time. When coming from England to the New England region, people often traveled with their families. Men usually had lots of wives. These people were Puritans, whom were very religious. The Puritan ideal is that the family governed in the same way that kings ruled over society. These Pilgrims believed that the Anglican establishment was so corrupt that they must establish their own independent church. This is the reason for their emigration to North America. They wanted to develop a society, a civilization (Doc.
D). Economically, the major difference between the New England and the Chesapeake regions are that in the New England region has little economic interest and the Chesapeake region has major economic interest. In the New England region, families were subsistence farmers. They got enough food and supplies for their own family to survive and live on. Both the New England and Chesapeake regions were involved in the fur trade. Many English came from England to the Americas in search of gold, including John Smith. This was where the economic gain was. That is, until tobacco. The major cash crop in the Chesapeake region is tobacco. In 1613, John Rolfe was the person who developed this new crop. It became the foundation of this colony's economy. To harvest this crop, indentured servants were put to work. The indentured servants were people who contract to work for another for a period of time, in return for travel costs or food and shelter. Trade was also practiced in the Chesapeake region. Many crops were grown in this, less urban, region. There is much more open land and places to plant crops than there is in the New England region (Doc. H). In conclusion, the New England region had very much of a religious interest, whereas the Chesapeake region has an economic interest. The New England region was all about the "city on a hill" ideal and following the Bible. The Chesapeake region is governed from its mother country, England and it has a major cash crop, tobacco. As proved above, the developmental differences between the New England and Chesapeake regions were because of political, social, and economical reasons.