Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
New england colonies social
New england colonies social structure
New england colonies social
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: New england colonies social
England began colonizing America in the 1600s, when religious and political dissenters of the changes imposed by the Stuart monarchy launched one of the largest migrations in written history The Great Migration in search of a new life free from persecution and open to numerous employment opportunities. Each emigrant brought with him/her a blueprint in his mind of recreating the culture he left behind, yet, by 1700, the regions of New England and the Chesapeake region had evolved into two distinct societies. Whether their motive for emigration was to attain a second chance to mend failures, to seek an oasis that provided religious freedom, or perhaps to find a place to preserve the vanishing past of England, the settlers basically sought to find better conditions of daily life. By 1700s, their lifestyles became distinguishable due to several key factors: the characteristics of the settlers, the land, and their goals in their new homes.
Age played a significant role in fostering differences among the two settlements. By 1640, New England had come to include Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. Settlers of New England were mainly families, with the male of the household being somewhere in his thirties or forties. The society, thus, was predominated by families, where quantity of people of both genders remained fairly balanced. According to Hawke, their age made them more determined to preserve a way of life known back home (Hawke, 16). Because the men were mostly middle-aged men, with a conservative mind, many came expecting to stay, and were called "planters". They were determined and well equipped to start a farming life in the fertile lands in America.
Settlers in the Chesapeake regio...
... middle of paper ...
...lity of the land, nor the wellbeing of the whole, they failed to fertilize the land, nor grow crops edible to the settlers themselves. As a result, mortality rate ran as high as 80% in Chesapeake in the first half of the century. However, later on, realizing its faults, the settlers began to change their way of living and their lifestyles became "more wholesome, healthy, and fruitful, yet still not as healthy as that of England" (Hawke, 73).
Works Cited
Hawke, David Freeman. Everyday Life in Early America. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,
1988.
Lukes, Bonnie L. The World Series Colonial America. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.
Sinclair, Andrew. A Concise History of the United States. New York: Sutton Publishing
Limited, 1999.
U.S. Department of Justice. United States History 1600-1987. Washington D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1989.
The Chesapeake and New England regions were settled by people of English descent, but by 1700, they had become two distinctly different societies. They had evolved so differently, mainly because of the way that the settlers followed their religion, their way of conducting politics and demographics in the colonies. Even though the settlers came from the same homeland: England, each group had its own reasons for coming to the New World and different ideas planned for the colonies.
While the Protestant Revolution raged in Europe, Catholics and other radicals were fleeing to the New World to find religious freedom and to escape prosecution. Because of this, the northern colonies became more family and religiously orientated as the families of the pilgrims settled there. From the Ship’s List of Emigrants Bound for New England we see that six families on board made up sixty nine of the ships passengers (B). Not only did families tend to move to New England, but whole congregations made the journey to find a place where they could set up “a city upon a hill”, and become an example to all who follow to live by as John Winthrop put it to his Puritan followers (A). Contrastingly, the Chesapeake colonies only had profit in their mind, which pushed them to become agriculturally advanced. Since Virginia, one of the Chesapeake colonies, was first settled with the intention of becoming an economic power house, it was mainly inhabited by working-class, single men. The average age of a man leaving for the Americas was only twenty two and a half years old according to the Ship’s List of Emigrants bound for Virginia (C). The harsh conditions of the colony did not appeal to those who wished to settle with a family. Added on to that was the fact that the average lifespan in the Chesapeake colonies was a full ten years or more shorter than that in other more desirable living quarters to the north.
The characteristics that came to shape the life in New England were the rocky, barren soil, the extreme climate and the rich waters. Although there was farming in New England , colonists looked to other means of survival. They looked to the rich waters for fishing and trade. The coastline of New England was very fertile with sealife. So, fishing became a way of commerce and trade providing a steady economy to New England. Because of the rocky soil and extreme climate, the colonists were forced to plant many different crops on a small pa...
During the 1700's, people in the American colonies lived in very distinctive societies. While some colonists led hard lives, others were healthy and prosperous. The two groups who showed these differences were the colonists of the New England and Chesapeake Bay areas. The differentiating characteristics among the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed due to economy, religion, and motives for colonial expansion. The colonists of the New England area possessed a very happy and healthy life. This high way of living was due in part to better farming, a healthier environment, and a high rate of production because of more factories. The colonists of the Chesapeake Bay region, on the other hand, led harder lives compared to that of the colonists of New England. The Chesapeake Bay had an unhealthy environment, bad eating diets, and intolerable labor.
Second, those who migrated to New England tended to come over as families, quite dissimilar to the single men who flooded Chesapeake Bay. Obviously, a much more stable family life took root in New England. Single women in Chesapeake Bay were few and far between, and the few that were around were not single for long. It was much easier to establish families in New England, where the balance between men and women was much closer to equal. These strong families provided security and made the New England colonists live a more stable life than those who lived to the south in Chesapeake Bay.
The culture of New England was one unique to New England. The northern colonies of New England were dominated by the Puritans, and settled primarily for religious reasons. The environment of New England consisted of rocky soil, dense forests, and large numbers of fish (Sarcelle, 1965). The culture that developed in New England was appropriate to such conditions.
In the early 17th century, the English swiftly colonized the New World. This act encouraged Englishmen to explore and learn more about the newly claimed area. In groups, many people set off abroad to the east coast residing in two regions, being either the Chesapeake or New England area. As people began to settle, the differences of the two colonies started to emerge. Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled largely by people of English origin, the two evolved into distinct colonies because of their many differences.
Following Spain and Portugal's first efforts to claim the "New World" for their own, England, France and the Netherlands establish colonies throughout North America, predominantly seeking economic wealth and opportunities with occasional religious intentions. While the Spanish savagely plunder the riches of the natives to satisfy their own greed in this newly untapped world, the English, French and Dutch pursue a seemingly less violent approach through lucrative trade and establishing colonies, to meet their own intentions. In the northern regions of North America (what is today Canada) and the southeast (what is now Florida) occurred the beginning of French and Native American interactions for trade. On the Atlantic coast of what is today much of the Northeastern United States lies the English colonies that dominate their focus on producing tobacco and trading goods for luxurious furs. While there is the presence of a Puritan society that hoped for religious tolerance within the Massachusetts Bay colony, this was one of the few exceptions among the English settlements. In New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony in present day New York, lies a trading and farming community that is solely there to claim a stake in the "New World". Representing Spain, Columbus establishes a gold seeking society motivated in finding riches. As European countries settled vast expanses of territory through North America, each nation shows their desires for economic gains and a presence in the Americas.
As colonial America started to settle in, towns and counties were developing and causing conflict. The early colonial American settlers that “the bulk of the emigrants came voluntarily, and more often than not they were the most “vivid people” of England, those with energy and courage to make a new start in life” (Hawke, 1). To Hawke’s point that the early colonist faced hardships, was when they encountered the Native Americans. This was one of the reasons why colonial Americans were encountering new ways of life, that what they were taught and knew about Europe had to be disregard...
By the 1700's two regions of English colonization , New England and the Chesapeake Bay, varied greatly. Physical and cultural differences separated them. The seeds of diversity were planted in the early days of colonization when they grew into distinctive societies. Colonists came to America with different motives. Some came for religious reasons while others came to get rich. Religion was the basis of the people's lives in New England, but in the Chesapeake region, money and producing tobacco dominated life. This would affect the colonies economically, socially, and politically.
The English Settlement in the New World was largely the result of the Age of Exploration. The English started emigrated to the New World around the early 1600s; they settles in regions including the New England and the Chesapeake region and by the 18th century these two regions had developed their own society. These two regions had developed different political, economic and social system in their regions. The political differences were due to who governs the colony. The economic differences were due to the motives of the settlement. The social differences were due to the people who settled there, while the New England emigrated as a family, the Chesapeake emigrated with mostly male.
During the early years of colonization and exploration in North America and Africa, many New World "collided" and brought to each other many new things, both good and bad. There were exchanges of ideas, products and crops that greatly advanced the cultures of all involved, but on the other hand, new diseases, and harsh treatment of one another were also present.
During the late 16th century and into the 17th century, European nations rapidly colonized the newly discovered Americas. England in particular sent out numerous groups to the eastern coast of North America to two regions. These two regions were known as the Chesapeake and the New England areas. Later, in the late 1700's, these two areas would bond to become one nation. Yet from the very beginnings, both had very separate and unique identities. These differences, though very numerous, spurred from one major factor: the very reason the settlers came to the New World. This affected the colonies in literally every way, including economically, socially, and politically.
There were a myriad of differences between Great Britain and her American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but these differences can be divided into three basic categories: economic, social, and political. The original American settlers came to the colonies for varied reasons, but a common trait among these settlers was that they still considered themselves British subjects. However, as time passed, the colonists grew disenfranchised from England. Separated from the king by three thousand miles and living in a primitive environment where obtaining simple necessities was a struggle, pragmatism became the common thread throughout all daily life in the colonies. It was this pragmatism that led the colonists to create their own society with a unique culture and system of economics and politics.
Everyday life in the United States is very different today than it was in the 1700's. Life was harder and the settlers did not have nearly as many luxuries as society has today. Some aspects of the colonial times that were different then are today include family, employment, and social activities. Life in the United States in the 1700's was filled with hard work, cooperation, and dedication to one’s land and family.