The Chesapeake and New England Colonies: A Comparison

The main founder of the London Company was King James I from England who chartered the London Company to form a colony in North America. They invested around $10,000 on the trip to Jamestown. Those settlers who went on the trip were called "planters" and those who stayed in England and invested their money in it were called "adventurers". Each planter and adventurer was to share in the company's profits which failed to profit, however, through many tries. "(London Company) In 1619, the House of Burgesses was formed which gave Jamestown the first for of government.

While New England civilians were fabricating laws of agreement to live by based around there faith, the people of Chesapeake are finding ways to go against there faith by attack their governor, indicates that the two colonies main focuses are not nearly related. Using slaves and indentured servants for farming and cultivating the land of Chesapeake, the Virginians thrived on high profits, large estates, utilizing slavery, fighting Indians and attacking slaves. On the other hand, the New England colonies were centered around a Christian background, grounded on family ties, community unity, and flourishing from a diverse population. The New England and the Chesapeake colonies, both settled by the English become two entirely different societies by the beginning of the eighteenth century. As a outcome of individualism in the two societies, a vast difference in the development occurred.

The founder decided that Rhode Island would be a haven for thinkers and other religions and such. Another state with some religious freedom was Connecticut, which gave us the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. The cause of this difference was that most of the colonist had fled to the colonies to escape religious persecution. In fact they almost had a majority rule, therefore they did not want a powerful church to suppress or persecute them here in the new world. So they hacked the power of the church and made sure it stayed out of government affairs.

Both New England and the Chesapeake were founded by the British around the same time; however, both colonies developed a different economy, government, and many other ways of life. In 1607, King James I. granted a charter to the Virginia Company which allowed them to start a colony in the New World. This colony was named Virginia after the virgin queen, Queen Elizabeth I, and was located along the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia Company sought to build a permanent settlement, and was successful in establishing Jamestown. Virginia was also home to nearly 14,000 Algonquin speaking Native Americans who were united under the Powhatan Confederacy lead by Chief Powhattan.

After reading Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer, it is apparent that the four major British groups arriving from 1620 to 1776 and their patterns of settlement would shape the development of American regionalisms known throughout the country. Four major British groups immigrated to America within a span of less than two hundred years. Although they all migrated from the British Isles, each had a distinct set of standards and a very set culture carried from the other side of the Atlantic. Not only were the people of early America diverse, so were the motives for which they migrated to the New World. The Puritans arrived from 1629 to 1641.

The Dutch set foot on land they called New Amsterdam, however, The English, who had settled their first colony in Jamestown, Virginia, drove the Dutch out and claimed New Amsterdam for themselves, later renaming it New York. The English claimed more land as time passed, and eventually they had formed 13 different colonies in the Eastern part of America. The English Colonies were separated into 3 different regions. The New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire), the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware), and the Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia). The New England Colonies were the earliest of the 3 regions, founded by English Settlers seeking religious freedom.

Contrary to Virginia, Maryland was a proprietary colony settled in 1632. The charter granted Cecilius Calver... ... middle of paper ... ...olerable Acts, which colonists viewed as posing threat to their political freedom. Therefore, the Continental Congress adopted the Continental Association, and more small towns and rural areas joined the resistance. Still, some colonial leaders did not favor severing the tie with Britain because of pride of British membership and fear of further turmoil. In New York and Pennsylvania, unable to achieve a consensus on their position against Britain, many leaders stagnated from further resistance.

What was to come was years of hardship and war. The colony of Chesapeake had begun with the first establishment of the English colony of Jamestown in the year 1607. The English immigrants who had established Jamestown were indentured servants, who agreed to work for an English company with the purpose of gaining passage to the New World. The colony of New England was also established similar to the colony of Chesapeake due to the fact that English immigrants seemed to escape life in England for a more free and un-ruled life in the New World. The Middle Colonies consisted of a variety of different European natives.

A man named William Penn had an idea of a “holy experiment.” He wanted it to be a model of peace and religious freedom for Christian living. Religion was not as important in the Middle Colonies as in the other regions. In the Southern Colonies, a man named Lord Baltimore set up the colony of Maryland. He believed that Catholics could practice their religion freely. The Act of Toleration was later created that stated that all Christian... ... middle of paper ... ...ho were property owners, even those who did not belong to the Puritan church, were allowed to vote.

Immigration and Its Impact on America America would not be America without immigrants. In addition to America having been founded by immigrants, the nation was literally ‘built’ by immigrants. In 1565, Spanish explorers established Augustine, Florida which is America’s oldest known colony. However, the largest early colony of immigrants were the English colonists who settled in Jamestown,Virgina and Plymouth, Massachusetts. These English colonists, known as the Puritans, came to America in the early 1600’s.