FREE ESSAY ON NEW ENGLAND AND CHESAPEAKE COLONIES

NEW ENGLAND AND CHESAPEAKE COLONIES

Early English colonies in America hardly resembled the union of men and women that would
later fight against England and build a new country. In fact, until the mid-eighteenth
century, most English colonists had very little, if anything to do with the settlers in
neighboring colonies. They heard news of Indian wars and other noteworthy events, not
from the colony itself, but from England. The colonies in the New World appeared
completely different and the prospect of any unity between them seemed impossible. The
colonies in New England and the Chesapeake exemplify the many differences in the culture
and lifestyles of the settlers, created mainly because of the fact that their founding
fathers had held separate intentions when they came to the New World. 
The New England and Chesapeake colonies were both settled by immigrants from England, the
New England colonies being founded by the English from East Anglia, an area in eastern
England. Though this was an area thriving with small towns that they had generally liked,
they decided to flee England due to religious persecution. Hundreds of families, men,
women and their children, came in search of a New World where they could practice their
beliefs freely. They founded colonies such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
and Rhode Island as model Christian societies. Their cities upon the hills were guides,
the lanterns, for those lost in the darkness of humanity, as John Winthrop meant by his
famous statement. They formed a society of strict religious participation, actually very
much resembling their homeland. In the beginning, many called themselves Puritans, and
kept things very simple and plain, concentrating on what was important to them. They used
the community to achieve their goals, building new towns and enjoying the social aspect
of their religion. At the same time, they were committed to remain working hard to keep
their community productive. They believed the "idle hands" were the devil's workshops. 
An issue that really defined a split between the societies was the slavery conflict. The
northerners in New England held true to their belief that every man shall be equal and no
one should be enslaved, while the southerners in the Chesapeake area strongly believed in
the use of slavery. At the same time the New Englanders worked to help end slavery by
preaching to others about the injustices, they worked diligently to make education in
their society strong. Most people in the towns were literate so that they could read
their Bibles and study them in detail with their friends and family. Some colonists were
artisans or merchants. Others were small-town farmers, making sure that every member of
the community had a reasonable share of God's land. The northern colonies were renowned
for being rich in furs, timber and fish. They were especially noted for developing into a
very successful trading region. The New England colonies made up the middle class society
whose focal points were family, education and religion. The society remained
non-capitalistic, yet still buzzed with much activity. 
On the other hand, the Chesapeake region had a "cash crop" get rich quickly mentality.
This aristocratic region consisted of Virginia and Maryland, two colonies that seemed to
be exceedingly materialistic. Evidently, their lives were based more on their liquid
assets than on God or family. The Englanders who saw the opportunity to take advantage of
the popularity of a brand new crop they had discovered settled the Chesapeake area. These
"gold diggers" were mainly upper-class men of wealthy families aspiring towards coming to
the New World to create a large profit for themselves. These colonists were not fleeing
England seeking religious or social freedom, but clearly only to add more wealth to their
names. Tobacco soon became the primary crop seen growing on almost every one of these
wealthy men's plantations, which created tremendous amounts of money to add to their
fortunes. Of course almost every plantation had African slaves working on the land. These
colossal estates came to depend on their slaves to run their farms and slavery became a
common, yet feared, way of life for many Africans. 
Unfortunately for these Chesapeake colonies, due to swampy land in much of the area,
towns were not part of the landscape or lifestyle as they were in the north. This area
was a place of fierce competition with a very minute sense of community, as opposed to
the thriving northern colonies surrounded with warm and inviting community towns. The
strong focus on family, education or religion was not a main highlight in the lives of
Chesapeake colonists, except in Maryland, where the Calvert family did indeed form a
haven for Catholics.
These two regions of the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies did in truth
share the common fact that their settlers were all of English origin. Of course when they
first set sail, even before they reached the New World, they began to separate into two
distinctly different societies already. The clearly evident reason is because these
"pilgrims" came to the New World each pursuing something different. The New England
settlers were longing to find a more suitable land of opportunity where they could better
their lives and gain religious freedom. They wanted very much to create a society where
they could focus on their family, religion and education. Where as the Chesapeake
settlers, they were clearly hoping to "strike gold" in the New World. Many hoped they
could improve their social status even more by gaining large profits from growing and
selling such items as tobacco. The New England colonists came and made a quite simple
society and the Chesapeake colonists created a more aristocratic society. Their society
seemed to care more about their wealth and power more than anything, where as the New
England society grew to be one with important focus'. These two regions may have shared
that same origin and spoken the same English language, but they rarely "spoke of similar
things." Because of this culture barrier, a separated north and south was created,
causing two distinctly different societies to evolve.