Northern vs. Southern American Colonies 1700s

Sarbjit Kaur History 17 A Essay question Q 1. The American colonies were divided into three distinct regions and these regions were different from each other in their origins, populations, economics and agriculture, religious makeup, and connection to England .write an essay comparing and contrasting the New England, middle, and southern colonies with specific examples. The American colonies new England ,middle and southern colonies were very similar but different.

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.

The New England, Middle and Southern colonies were all English ruled, but yet very different. Among their distinctions, was the geography which played an important role in shaping these colonies. New England attracted Puritan farmers who wanted to separate from the Catholic Church. But because of the bone dry soil in the North, these colonists found they couldn't continue with their traditional ways of farming. However, with the immense amounts of water that surrounded them, they found that they could fish and trade. The Middle colonies on the other, hand had a moderate amount of everything. The fertile soil and the major seaports such as Philadelphia and New York, allowed these Middle colonists to make a living any way they saw fit. This led to the brisk development of the Middle Seaboard . Unlike the Middle and Northern colonies, the Southern colonies had large amounts of fertile land allowing for the development of large plantations. Because farming the plantations was the economic thrust for the South, towns and cities developed slowly. Thusly Geography greatly affected the lifestyles of these regions in the New World.

The climate of the colonies clearly affected the production and trade of goods, while the climate of their homeland affected the colonists’ knowledge and survival rate. What the colonists’ were able to produce created their economy, affected the economy of their mother country, and impacted their development of slavery as well. As we have seen differences can be found not only between the European competitors and the colonies they would create but also between the British American colonies as well. When taking a closer look at American Colonies, their differences are able to stand out and help one further understand their development and their effect on their progress.

The Middle Colonies were a very diverse area with many races and religions. It was located between The New England Colonies and The Southern Colonies. Farmers had more favorable conditions in the Middle Colonies than in New England. With milder winters, longer gr...

...arate societies by the time of the 1700's. Agriculture, motive, people, religion, and terrain are all factors that affected how they grew apart. However, it is also through the actions of the men and woman who settled in the regions and the choices they made that led to the development of two societies. The Chesapeake region became a society of money-driven, wealthy plantation owners, virtually no middle class workers, and those in extreme poverty. The New England colonies, in contrast, developed into a society of middle class family men who placed extreme emphasis on religion. The two societies in what would become one nation may have had effects on America in the future. The dispute over slavery, the imbalance of workers, and the class differences cause rifts between the two regions over time. Two radically different cultures cannot coincide in harmony forever.

Because of the way that the New England and Chesapeake regions set up their colonies, they became entirely different societies. One was community based, while the other sought gold and wealth; in one region a poor person had the same opportunities are a wealthy person, while in another place they could not; and one came seeking religious freedom while the other came for gold.

While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.

In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences

Social differences are one of the reasons New England and Chesapeake developed into two distinct societies. People in England were tired of being oppressed by the government, so they wanted to come to the New World for new opportunities and better treatment. According to a source from Massachusetts of the New England Colonies, “our town shall be composed of forty families,…rich and poor…every inhabitant shall have a convenient proportion for a house lot, as we shall see [fit] for everyone’s quantity and estate…everyone shall have a share o...