New England Versus the Chesapeake Colonies

New England Versus the Chesapeake Colonies

New England versus the Chesapeake
During the early 17th century, colonists from the Old World migrated towards the New World in the Chesapeake and New England areas. These two regions became two distinct societies due to their motivations for coming, their economy, and the role of religion in their life. Although New England and the Chesapeake area were settled around the time period, by the start of the 18th century they had changed into two entirely different regions. Motives for going to the New World differed from person to person. The New England colonists went to escape religious persecution while the Chesapeake colonists went to make money for themselves. In late 1606, the Virginia Company sent out three ships, by the spring of 1607 they land at Jamestown, a swamp area that they think can hide them from the French up north and from the Spaniards down south. In 120 a group of 102 people negotiate with the Virginia Company to settle in the New World. They board the Mayflower and on the way they realize that they are not under the King’s jurisdiction so they make a compact that allows majority rule. The colonists that set sail in 1606 left England to make money for them. The colonists that left in 1620 left because they believed that the Church of England was not as “pure” as it used to be and they were going to make one that was.
The economy of the two settlements vastly differed. The soil of the Chesapeake was fertile and perfect for farming, while on the other hand, the soil of the New England are was dry and rocky. Colonists of Chesapeake invested their farming and cultivation into one staple crop: tobacco. Farmers used large amounts of land to grow the tobacco and used indentured servants to do the labor. Indentured servants were usually the poor people that had no money and wanted to come to the New World to make some wealth. Farmers paid for their passage and in return they worked on the farm for a set amount of years. Even though tobacco became the...

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