American Colony Lifestyles

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So close yet so far

The lifestyle in the three American colonies sections, varied dramatically, the most obvious was the difference between the New England and the Southern colonies. The New England colonies varied in many ways from the southern colonies, the most obvious were the motives for the founders, the political and social beliefs, and economic differences. The New England colonies were much more interested in starting a new way of life for the generations to come, the Southern colonies based lived for the day and the quick dollar.

The Founders of the New England colonies had different views for the new world then the views of the Southern Founders. Although both founders were of English decent they came for very different reasons. The founders in the south formed the colonies in search of gold and fortunes. The crew consisted of second sons who did not receive any money from the family so they had a need for riches. In the New England Colonies the founder's main motivations were for religious freedom. They wanted to form a perfect society were they could purify the wrongs that were being done within the Church of England. Because the Colonies were founded upon different reasons the people within the colonies spawned different political views.

The political system was set up differently in the two different areas, mostly because of their different religious beliefs. The New England colonies set up a Religious based Oligarchy; the people based all their laws on the rules of their religion. In the New England colonies they set-up town meetings where any man that believed in the religion could vote, this stopped many people so they soon developed the Half-way covenant, to include the people who said they woul...

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...tributed to change in the political aspects of colonial settlers' lives were the house of burgess, town meetings, and foreign relations. The New England town meeting, consisted of direct democracy, everyone's vote directly counted for the topic under discussion. The Southern house of burgess set up a representative democracy, which wasn't very democratic, in that time 70 percent of the Virginia legislature came from the group known as the "first families of Virginia." The foreign relations in the south with the Indian population was good to a certain degree, when the southern colonists needed materials or help they went to the Indians, but when that was through they seen the Indian population as a hindrance on their progress. We seen this in such actions as Bacons rebellion, the colonists attacked the Indians mostly because of frustration over economic conditions.

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