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.
Just like their religions, Massachusetts gave more power to the people and Virginia gave power to England. In the New England Handout, Mailer describes the difference further, “Unlike in Virginia where a governor is elected from a faraway company in London, and after 1624, by the Crown itself, the ‘freemen’ of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire elect their own governors.” (1) This information describes the contrast in the way a governor gets elected. In Massachusetts, the “freemen”, men who own land, get to vote for their governor, while Virginia’s governor gets appointed by the crown. Virginia’s government also consisted of the Governing Council, rich elites controlling everything, and the House of Burgesses, upper middle-class landowners. The main reason the governments of these colonies differ is the fact that the charter of Virginia created by the Virginia Company resides in England, or in other words it is controlled by the crown. On the other hand, Massachusetts’s charter, created by the Massachusetts Bay Company, resides in the colony, so the colony self-governs itself. This brings forth another comparison of the two colonies; the reason why they were founded.
The Chesapeake region of the colonies included Virginia, Maryland, the New Jerseys (both East and West) and Pennsylvania. In 1607, Jamestown, the first English colony in the New World (that is, the first to thrive and prosper), was founded by a group of 104 settlers to a peninsula along the James River. These settlers hoped to find gold, silver, a northwest passage to Asia, a cure for syphilis, or any other valuables they might take back to Europe and make a profit. Lead by Captain John Smith, who "outmaneuvered other members of the colony's ruling and took ruthlessly took charge" (Liberty Equality Power, p. 57), a few lucky members of the original voyage survived. These survivors turned to the local Powhatan Indians, who taught them the process of corn- and tobacco-growing. These staple-crops flourished throughout all five of these colonies.
The Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown and was slightly more successful than Popham Colony, founded by the Virginia Company of Plymouth. The Popham settlement was abandoned after a long, cold winter and the Plymouth Company was subsequently dissolved. Two years after King James ch...
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.
A community is a group of people who work together towards a common goal and share a common interest. Lack of such a quality can and most likely will cause a struggling town or city to fall into the extremes of poverty and wealth. The New England community was so strong and so supportive in comparison to that of the Chesapeake Bay, that it is no wonder they developed into two distinctly different cultures before the year 1700. The Chesapeake region developed into a land of plantations and money-driven owners, with the elite wealthy, almost no middle class, and those in poverty creating the population. New England, on the other hand, had developed into a religion and family based society comprised of mostly middle class families by 1700. Looking at the terrain, ethic, government, and even the people themselves, reveals clues about how the drastic split in society came to be. It was one America, but two distinct societies had developed in it by the 1700's.
In Virginia’s early year, it was victim to very large death rates, “In 1625 the population stood at 1300 or 1400; in 1640 it was about 8000. In those fifteen years between those dates at least 15,000 persons must have come to the colony. If so, 15,000 immigrants increased the population by 7000.”(1) As soon as this disease that had killed so many died off, the population sky rocketed. The growing economy could not support all of the immigrants that were coming into the country. This shortage of employment caused many of these white new comers to be reduced to poverty. As the poverty grew in Virginia, revolt became imminent. In about 1680, rebellion took over Virginia. In order to combat this rebellion, Virginian legislators began devising strict laws which stripped the Englishmen of their rights. Needless to say that these laws increased the discontent of the inhabitants...
Looking at the early English colonies in the Chesapeake Bay region, it’s clear that the English had not learned any lessons from their experiences at Roanoke. Poor planning, a bad location, unrealistic expectations, flawed leadership, unsuccessful relations with the local Indians, and no hope of finding the mineral wealth the Spanish found in Mexico, all contributed to failure. The first colonists in the Chesapeake region were not only ignorant, lazy and unambitious, but their attempts were hampered before they had begun. However, a solution to these problems was found in a single plant: tobacco. Nevertheless, this cash crop ultimately created numerous problems for the colonists. The ignorance and indolent acts of the Chesapeake colonists to unsuccessfully restore the colony by themselves led to the demise of the colony as a whole especially regarding the planting of agricultural goods for food.
In the concluding fourth section entitled “Independence” Holton brings the crux of his argument to fruition, arguing convincingly that Virginia's elites were pushed ever further down the road to open rebellion by the actions of several different groups, whose contributions to the founding of the United States have been overlooked by historians. Holton's conclusion offers a vision of pluralistic causation behind the final decision of the gentry class to finally make the break with Britain and highlights the need for further research and study of points raised in this monograph concerning the contributions these marginal groups in the founding of the United States.
Virginia in 1676 was a colony in turmoil. For a number of years the popularity of Governor Sir William Berkeley had suffered, especially among smaller farmers and those living on the edge of the frontier. Issues of complaint included land ownership, requirements on voting rights, high taxes, low tobacco prices, restrictive Navigation Acts, and, most importantly, lack of protection from attacks waged by Native Americans. Berkeley’s attempts to negotiate peace with the Native Americans caused him to avoid confronting violations of treaty obligations for fear of making the situation worse. As a result, as a greater percentage of the white population began to infiltrate Indian lands, more and more Virginians, especially unemployed colonists who had formerly been indent...
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. Other Chesapeake Bay colonies include North Carolina, whose population became dominant in African Americans with a large amount of settlers from Barbados, and Maryland. Maryland was established by the Calvert Family after King Charles I. granted 10 million acres of land to the family. Maryland became the only British colony to ever have a Catholic minority, and the population of Maryland also consisted of indentured servants, slaves, and many farmers. The Chesapeake Bay was a very hot area a...
The causes and outcome of Bacon’s rebellion had effects that were not dramatic enough to significantly impact Virginian politics. Although the movement represented the revolutionary potential of unemployed and landless men, it did not have a tangible effect on the change of leadership or the Virginian policy towards the natives. Bacon’s rebellion was more of a symbol or indicator of the present character of the colony and foreshadowed later events, but it ultimately had no direct effect on Virginian politics because Berkeley ended up maintaining his political influence and control. The rebellion did contribute to the growth of slavery, and it showed how land greedy the settlers were. These indeed were significant effects of the event, but they did not impact Virginian politics. The backcountry men did not have a more powerful presence or influence in Virginia
The Jamestown and Plymouth settlements were both settled in the early 1600's. Plymouth and Jamestown were located along the shoreline in Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively. Although both had different forms of government, they both had strong leadership. Jamestown was controlled by the London Company, who wanted to profit from the venture, while the Puritans who settled at Plymouth were self-governed with an early form of democracy and settled in the New World to gain religious freedom. John Smith took charge in efforts to organize Jamestown, and at Plymouth William Bradford helped things run smoothly.
The Crucible is set in 1600’s Salem, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the second colony established in the new world, forming in 1629. Puritans sought a new place where they could establish more religious freedom than England and could purify themselves from Catholicism. The Massachusetts Bay colony was eventually settled by a Puritan company by the name of Massachusetts Bay Company, which was a joint stock company that was given a royal charter by King Charles I. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was quickly established as a theocratic government with John Endecott as the first governor.
The English had two main colonies in the new world, Jamestown and Plymouth. The first colony was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607. Jamestown was settled by Captain John Smith, and was named after King James I. Tobacco was the main export of Jamestown, and became the basis of the Jamestown economy, sending more than 50,000 lbs of the plan back to Europe by 1618 (textbook 46). Jamestown had a very rocky start, many colonists dying in the first few years of the settlement, and the settlers had many problems with natives. Shortly after the arrival of English colonists the Natives attacked them, and were finally forced back by a canon from the English. A very uneasy truce was finally settled between the natives, called the Powhatans, and the English (textbook 44-5). Economic growth and expanding their territories were the main priorities of the English in the Jamestown colonies.