New England and Chesapeake Colonization

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During the 1600’s the New England and Chesapeake regions were beginning to settle and colonize. While both came from English origin and had dreams of wealth and freedom, differences began to form just as they settled and by the 1700s the two regions will have evolved into two distinct societies. Because of the exposure to different circumstances both regions developed issues that were unique from one another and caused them to construct their societies differently. Therefore, the differences socially, politically and economically in the two regions caused the divergence.

The first settlement, Jamestown was established in the Chesapeake region. Geographically, the location was unhealthy but easy to defend from the Spanish ships (but not inland Indians). The colony lacked leadership, John Smith tried to impose order but conditions in the region were also not good and many died within the first year from starvation (Document F) because many colonists did not work or have experience farming. Many of the colonists who came from England to the Chesapeake were young males (Document C). Because of this, the region almost died out because there was no natural population growth. It was not till John Rolfe introduced tobacco that the Chesapeake region began to generate wealth. The rapid growth of tobacco required heavy labor so to encourage cultivation of tobacco; the head right system began which also contributed to a large population growth in the region. Because tobacco plantations created such wealth they became the key economic product. Despite the profits from tobacco, The Chesapeake was still a terrible place to live with a high death rate from diseases and attacks from Powhaten Indians. A pivotal change to the region was that the ...

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...ong enough to see grandparents. The Community was also much more commutable than that if the Chesapeake where each town was independently governed by local church members (congretionalism) unlike the House of Burgesses in Virginia which only saw over financially. With different lands from the Chesapeake, New England relied on livestock, grains and fishing for their economy.

Despite both coming from English origin, the two regions are very different from one another. The Chesapeake, a region more for investment and wealth and New England being a region more as a religious haven. The two regions diverged into two distinct societies mostly from the different location of the two and the issues that arised from there. Even though they both became different by the 17th century, the two regions would unite despite huge differences when the quest for independence begins.

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