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Two Distinct Societies: New England and Chesepeake

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Submitted By aliciarfisk
Words 485
Pages 2
The New England and Chesapeake region, both settled largely by people of English origin, had developed into two very distinct societies. In determining how the two regions differed, one must assess the purpose of migrating to the New World. Economically, the two regions differed with New England focusing on family growth and Chesapeake more concerned about agriculture. Climatically, the locations provided a difference with different climates causing various problems. And with motives of finding independent religion in New England and jobs in Chesapeake. Thus, the New England and Chesapeake colonies differentiated greatly in aspects of the climate in the two colonies location, the motive of migrating to the New World, and the economics used to form the two colonies. Economically, the two colonies main focuses varied from each other. In the Chesapeake colony, the settlers looked for gold. With gold being the sole purpose, the target group was middle aged men. (doc. 3) While the men looked for gold, the settlers did not bother having crops to survive, resulting in the starving time. After the men faced ‘the starving time’ the settlers worked for economy only. This means, the men cultivated tobacco and used indentured servants for labor. On the other hand, New England had small scale farming because not only did they have long winters, but the soil was poor and rocky which was not ideal soil to use for farming. Since farming was not a large source on income, the New England settlers survived with fishing, lumber, shipping, and whaling as sources of income making New England mostly an industrial region which led to the large cities. Not only did the New Englanders focus on manufacturing, they also viewed family growth as a large component in creating a functioning society. The group of settlers which formed the colony were many families. (doc. 2) Climatically, the two colonies different climates led to problems. New England had rocky soil with long winters which meant the cool air did not kill of germs and led to many illnesses. Chesapeake had fertile soil with hot summers. The hot summers in Chesapeake helped kill germs preventing certain influenzas and other viruses from spreading through the colony. The settlers of each colony did not migrate to the colony for no reason; each group had their sole purpose. The New England settlers strived to be ‘the city upon a hill’ (created by Winthrop) meaning they followed every rule the bible stated. New England was dominated by Congregational Church and was founded solely for religion independance. Because Chesapeake saw mainly male settlers, the sole purpose of migrating was to find jobs, which naturally meant the men would be gold diggers. Therefore, the New England and Chesapeake had hardly any similarities, making the colonies two very distinct societies by many aspects such as the climate, the motive of migration to the New World, and the economics used in the two colones.

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