But instead of docking in Virginia they ended up landing in New England, and so it marked the beginning of Puritan settlement New England. Others desired a change in lifestyle, despite originating from the same area, England, Members of the Anglican or Church of England, these men had no reason to search and establish a new way of life, instead they wished to fortify and make their lives better for materialistic reasons as opposed to religion. From the beginning New England and Chesapeake settlers started off creating their colonies disparately. (Document C) Since settlers came to the Chesapeake with the intention of not staying for long, they traveled alone, not with families. At a six to one ration of mostly men, they left England to seek profit from gold.
The London Virginia Company, a joint stock company, financed the trip to the New World in hopes of making money off the venture. New England, on the other hand, was founded for religious purposes. The Separatists, a small group of Puritans, broke away from the Anglican Church and were being persecuted in England. Therefore, they headed to the New World in search of religious freedoms. All of the New England colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island, were settled for religious purposes.
“Puritanism was a power not to be denied. It did great things for England and for America, but only by creating in the men and women it affected a tension which was at best painful and at worst unbearable. Puritanism required that a man devote his life to seeking salvation but told him he was helpless to do anything but evil.” Separatism means to withdraw and in the case of the Puritan Dilemma it was first John Winthrop and his decision to withdraw from the Church of England and move to New England to set up a purer Christian community in Massachusetts compared to the one in England. The problem with separatism is that if everyone decided to follow their own interpretation of religion this would cause society to disintegrate. “Separatism might splinter the colony into a hundred earnest little Utopias, each feeding on its own special type of holiness and each breeding new types, multiplying, like earthworms, by division.
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.
Englishmen saw the Chesapeake as a place to make profit. Despite originating from the same area, New England and the Chesapeake evolved into two distinct societies at two different rates. Although New England and the Chesapeake regions were settled largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies due to demographic, motivational, political, and geographical differences. From the beginning New England and Chesapeake settlers started off creating their colonies disparately. Unlike Puritans of New England, settlers destined for the Chesapeake region migrated individually.
The Chesapeake and New England Colonies The English colonists who settled in New England and Chesapeake areas created societies with very different characteristics. Despite most of the colonists coming from the same mother country, the settlers traveled to America for separate reasons and thus maintained varying lifestyles. These differences were noticeable in social structure, economic outlook, and religious background. The diversity of the regions was the foundation for the emergence of two unique societies by 1700. The New England area consisted of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven.
European nations colonized the New World for three reasons: its resources, and the wealth and power that they could gain from those resources. England's colonization efforts were delayed due to civil wars at home. France and Spain took advantage of England's relative absence, and explored the New World tirelessly. England had colonies, however neglected, in New England and Virginia, though by the 1700s, they had grown apart in very different ways. The Massachusetts settlers were first and foremost interested in religion: they had come to America for the religious freedom to follow their ideals and wished to extend religious tolerance to all in their new colony (Doc A).
By 1750, the New England and Chesapeake colonies exhibited pronounced economic, social and political diversity due to both the differing motives for colonization and the differing geographies of the regions. Essentially, the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies were founded by people with distinctly different motives, the two region’s social, economic, and political developments varied greatly. The New England colonists were interested in escaping religious persecution and seeking spiritual enlightenment. This indicated that many of the colonist left England in families which varied the number of population in these colonies (Doc F). In addition the colonist placed a strong emphasis on education, as evidenced by the 1647 Massachusetts ‘Old Deluder Satan Law’ which mandated that if a town exceeded a certain threshold of families it must start a school.
Jamestown Colony vs. Massachusetts Bay Colony A man with a wife and two children had strong beliefs in being a Congregationalist and eventually came to the decision of migrating to the New World simply because of the new opportunities for his family and himself that he did not receive in England. In comparison to Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay is a much more efficient colony to settle in merely because he will be able to handle his religious matters as he pleases without the Stuart Monarchs interfering with their belief of a king having the authority to enforce religious conformity. Also, in New England, the environment was more family-friendly and they mostly earned immense profits by experiencing in shipbuilding and trade. Lastly, New England families lasted longer and stayed healthier than other colonies. New England, in general, was well-organized and sturdy in comparison to Jamestown’s swampy land and unequipped settlers.
Chesapeake Bay and New England DBQ Many say that geography determines the development of a people group, but the colonial American development saw many other factors that determined its outcome in history. By 1700, the Chesapeake Bay and New England region had developed differently because of religious (Strict Puritan beliefs enforced on town communities in New England), economic (Chesapeake Bay based life off of the cultivation of tobacco), and social (Barbados Slave Codes) fundamentals. Religiously, both the Chesapeake and New England region differed greatly. The New England colonies were settled based on Puritan beliefs (Document D). Puritans and Separatists, about 70,000 refugees, came to North America due to the ruling of King James II in the 1630’s who would only tolerate Catholicism; this was called the Great Migration.