Two big colonial societies in the 1700’s were the New England and Chesapeake Bay societies. These societies varied in community and family life, but some similarities arose. In this time indentured servants were also widely used. This led to tension and conflict. This conflict though initiated a flourish of slave use in the in the Chesapeake Bay. The New England colonies consisted of what is now Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. These New England societies were very highly involved with educated their colonists. Education began at an early age. Massachusetts even made it a rule that if a town had more than 50 houses a teacher was required to teach the children. They were so involved in education they even founded Harvard in 1636. Harvard originally started as a ministry school to train men to be ministers. This stress on education was very important and had a huge impact on the literacy in New England. Compared to other colonies they had a high rate of individuals who could sign their names. 90% of white males could and 40% of females compared to a 50% rate in other colonies. THey even beat out England where only 33% of white males could read and write. Community life was also very important to New England societies and was set up in a unique way. All the towns were organized in the same way. In the center of each community there was a meeting house. The meeting house was …show more content…
New England societies were much more stable and they helped each other out as a community. Their lifestyle allowed for a “city upon a hill” society with no dissent. ON the other hand, the Chesapeake was not like this at all. They were more focused on making money through the tobacco industry and used servant and slave labor to do so. Their society was full of dissent and a rebellion broke out because of it. This is what caused the increase of slave use in the