Were The English Colonists Of The 17th Century Essay

Question: Were the English colonists of the 17th century motivated more by the pursuit of wealth or faith in their struggle to create a new society in the American colonies?

The English colonists of the 17th century came to the American colonies for many different reasons. The one that motivated them the most was their pursuit of wealth because, despite the early colonists saying that it was their mission as children of God to go to the new world and spread Christianity to more people, the whole idea of going to the new world was to make a profit for England and themselves. This colonization affected many people and eventually led to a war between two very powerful countries. The first colonists came over and landed in Jamestown and ran it as business enterprise, exporting cash crops, rather that growing food to try and survive for a long time there. The people of Jamestown tried to replicate the English way, which was every man for himself, and people weren’t very involved in the community. The colonists focused on growing tobacco, indigo, and sugar to export back to England for a profit, and if one was lucky enough to be a planter, he would manage his own fields
of cash crops and export them back to England. This was a sign that the early colonists came to the new world to pursue individual wealth, and an increase in social status, rather than trying to live in the new world and convert the natives to Christianity. While the early English colonists in Virginia had found economic success growing strictly tobacco exporting it back to England, the Plymouth colony used a different tactic to make a profit.
They traded with the Indians for goods that were unique and foreign to the English people. These items sold for a large sum across the sea in England, and the Plymouth Colony benefited largely from these trades. Growing cash crops and trading with the natives was easy for the Plymouth colony because when they settled at Plymouth, they found abandoned native cornfields and other crops that they could use to survive on. With these fields already planted and ready for harvesting, the settlers could focus on paying off the debt they owed to England, and could focus more on increase their own
profits. Although the first Puritans came to Massachusetts Bay to practice their own modified Anglicanism religion, the second generation of Puritans came to Massachusetts to pursue wealth. The men came to fish and make a profit off the plentiful amount of fish that the seas off the coast of the new world had to offer. But it wasn’t only the second generation of puritans that came to the new world seeking money. The churches of every Puritan generation introduced a church tax that required the colonists to pay a percent of their income to the church as an act of graciousness to god. Some of that money went to the church to keep it up and running, but most of it went to the pastors as a salary and they used it to become higher class citizens, and manipulate the educational system to be whatever they wanted it to be. Throughout the 17th century, many English settlers came to the new world. They were mostly motivated to do this because they wanted to pursue a life of wealth, in money, land, and social status. Although some colonists came in part to practice their own variation of a religion, all of the colonists came to make a profit in some way.