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Chesapeake Colonies Dbq

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The Societal Differences Between the Chesapeake and New England Colonies After the voyages of Columbus in 1492, the western world began to establish colonies in North and South America primarily for economic, political, and religious gain. This transitioned to three major powers dominating North America, the Spanish, the French, and the English. This threshold on power was solidified by the English after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Due the English’s new found power and confidence, many more English colonies started to develop such as the New England and Chesapeake colonies. The two regional colonies, were vastly different economically, socially, and politically even though they had the same county of origin. Their sharp contrasts …show more content…
In New England, faith was dominant in everyday life. The Puritan faith created a strict social code, but also valued social equality and unity. As the governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, states, “… make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body” (Document A). Here, he illustrates here the importance of togetherness to work towards the same goal and that they will prosper together if they work together in unity. Another key note is that the people who came to New England were families leaving religious persecution (Document B). The Chesapeake colonies on the other hand had no families going to their colonies, and often the individuals that went were young people with a disproportionate number of males to females (Document C). Due to this, there was a lack of unity when the individuals came to the colony. In addition to this, as there was a low amount of women, and it resulted in interracial marriage with Indians and a lack of families to be developed. In contrast, in New England there would be generations of families, and often there would be grandparents. Even though the settlers all came from the same country of origin and having similar customs, they developed into different customs in …show more content…
It is evident that in both colonies there was a local representative government, although there was difference in views towards how their governments were ran. In New England, the government consisted of only white church members. This lead to dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who opposed the church-government to be exiled. Over time, the Puritans liberalized their government system and allowed members to join even though they were not a part of the church. There was a large focus on church and state in the New England colonies. Meanwhile, in the Chesapeake colonies there was a disliking towards the rich ruling government from the lower classes, and vice versa. This was mainly in part due to the economic class system between the rich and poor and the lack of unity in the colony. As a result, the poor saw the leaders as incompetent and self-absorbed for their own political and economic gain as it states, “Let truth be bold and all the world know the real foundations of pretended guilt…. Let us trace … [the] men in authority and favor to whose hands the dispensation of the countr[y’s] wealth has been committed” (Document H). In contrast the ruling class thought of the poor as only defective individuals against the colony and the monarchy as it states, “… we may reasonably expect upon any small advantage the enemy may gain upon us, … [to

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