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The English Settlers: The Chesapeake Bay Colony

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There were many people that left England and headed towards the new land, but many others made their way towards Ireland and even the West Indies. Some one hundred and twenty thousand settlers settled the Chesapeake Bay area while about twenty thousand settlers settled the Middle Colonies which includes Pennsylvania. The English settlers that settled the Chesapeake Bay area were predominantly white males at first. Later on, the first women would begin making their way to Colonial America and a couple hundred would settle the Chesapeake Bay Colony. There were only a few of the settlers that were there as farmers and laborers. Many of them were there to prospect for gold because they were the sons of English Gentry and high-status craftsmen. …show more content…
The colony then realized that they had to create their own food and use the land they had, so they became farmers and laborers or landowners. The colony also knew that they needed more settlers, so they gave settlers fifty acres of land if they were to pay for their own passage or someone else’s passage to the new land. Settlers that brought in a large number of servants were quickly given a large estate. Also, there were African Americans that settled here as slaves to the English Settlers. On the other hand, the Pennsylvania colonies were mainly settled by Quakers. Many of these settlers were farmers, laborers, and landowners. The colony also attracted immigrants from Germany and Scotland because of its religious …show more content…
The government structure of the Chesapeake Bay colony resembled a lot of England’s county courts. It had a governor appoint justices of the peace who set all of the tax rates and ran the building and maintenance of public works. It then adopted a bicameral pattern by adopting a House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was barely like what we now know as democracy. This would be the first elected assembly in Colonial America. The government was always trying to raise the taxes on people. The Pennsylvania colony was run by a man named William Penn. He created a government ran by a small general assembly, and adopted a law that allowed people to have religious freedom. In both of these colonies, the voting came down to land owners or freemen. Although, the governors were basically always elected by the king. Later on, the voting rights would go to slave owning planters because it would lay a foundation that is economically and politically led by

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