Since England owned these particular areas of the New World, these colonies were very influenced and affected by their mother country. The social faults, political chaos, and economic distress in England during the early colonial years in America played a role in shaping the English colonial experience. The societal issues that were present in England during the 17th century pushed many people to go to the Americas. The overpopulation in England was a major incentive for many to move across the Atlantic. Another reason for migration was the idea of primogeniture, which allowed the eldest son to inherit the wealth; leaving others desperate and in hopes of finding riches overseas.
Slave codes were soon approved – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any minor liberties that might have existed for African American were taken away (Feature Indentured Servants In The U.S , n.p.). The early colonizers soon understood that they had lots of land to settle, but no one to actually do the work. This necessity for cheap labor created indentured servitude. Indentured servants were important to the colonial growth. But as demands for labor grew, so did the cost of paying indentured servants.
Another difference was the difference between who did the work in developing the colony. The colonies differing views on religion also helped shape the way each colony developed economically. The Virginia and Massachusetts Companies both realized that they would need to have a strong economic system, but their views on religion and profit had too many differences and resulted in different systems. The Puritans did not feel the need for “excessive profits” and lived by the belief of self control. The use of company labor and overpricing caused a lot of problems with Virginians.
The different crops and their distinctive patterns of labor organization gave rise to several other important distinctions as well. Tobacco was the first plantation crop in North America. English settlers in the Chesapeake region recognized tobacco's profitable potential in the early seventeenth century. They built their first plantations using the labor of British indentured servants rather than African slaves. But in the late 1600s the market for English servants dried up, and Virginia planters turned instead to slavery.
They were built more to live off of the land. Many of them were farmers and they lived well in the wilderness of Virginia. Most of them had no worth back in England and were just coming over to completely start over and earn new lives. The Economy of the Virginia colony was based on the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry boomed making it the leading cash crop for the Virginia area.
A DUAL IDENTITY IN COLONIAL AMERICA John Hamblen Professor Binnington History 162 Word Count: October 18, 2012 By looking through the 18th Century, one can see that the North American colonists possessed an identity of both British and colonial aspects of society. Immigrants from the British Empire helped shape the dual identity of colonies. People of different faiths and religions wanted a place where land was cheap and labor was needed. They wanted a society in which they could live their lives the way they wanted to. While living in their ideal society, the British Empire wanted the colonist to think of themselves as British subjects but at the same time to consider their identity of colonists.
Colonial Differences of the 17th Century In the mid-1600’s, when the New England and Chesapeake regions first began to colonize, each had the same hopes for the New World. However, by the 1700’s, the two regions varied greatly in spite of both being from England. Physical and cultural differences separated these regions distinctively. And when discussing this alteration between the New England colonies and the Chesapeake region, one must take into account the differences in purpose for colonial settlement and the differences in geography. These said factors led to considerable contrast.
The Impacts of Slavery, Race, and Capitalism in North America Taken from their homeland, ripped of their freedom, and enslaved to those who would suppress their race for so long in the centuries to come, were the Africans of West Africa. This marks the start of the separation of races and establishing power in the colonies in North America. During the seventeenth century, indigo became an immensely favored commodity for English planters. Indigo flourished most and became a major cash crop especially in English colonies, South Carolina and Georgia. Indigo was an extremely difficult crop to grow and harvest, and required intense and extensive labor.
God is revealed in the Bible. In 1620, the Mayflower arrived to America form England with people who were, in the majority of the cases, puritans that wanted to live in a better way travelling to America. When the ship arrived in Plymouth, the people who were travelling in the ship (not all the people, because people of the crew and several male servants were not allowed to do it) signed a compact which is considered the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. This compact, called “The Mayflower Compact” was
The excerpt from Clarence Ver Steeg’s The Formative Years tells why people were exported to America. The English were overcrowded, and wanted more people to settle in there new colony, America. The people they exported were low life people like slaves, criminals, and unwanted people. John Winthrop believed that the Puritans moved to England to follow there King, but not follow his religious beliefs. James Adams believed that the primary motive for people to move to America was to not follow the King’s laws.