Chesapeake Settlement In Virginia

The Chesapeake colonies were drawn to America to gain wealth from silver and gold, but they quickly realized that they were not as abundant as the Spanish had found in Mexico. The group was made up of a small group of farmers, laborers, craftsmen, and gentry. Slowly coming to realize that they needed to grow their own food and find a profitable resource, policies were set in place, which changed Virginia to a more progressive society. At first the relationship with the natives were peaceful, and most was fair. But tensions grew between the two led to the destruction of Indians villages and crops. Tobacco was the new gold increasing use from the Europeans caused a demand, more than 200,000 pounds was grown by 1624 yielding large profits for

In the early America colonies, each colony was largely settled by people of English origin. Although the majority of the colony founders were generally from similar areas, the colonies were all different. Two regions like this were the New England region and the Chesapeake region. New England consisted of the states Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Chesapeake consisted of Virginia and Maryland. Although the regions were very close to each other on a map, by the 1700’s both regions had evolved into two very distinct societies. This was due to the colonists reasons fro coming to the New World, their belief systems, the colonists themselves, and the geography.

With fertile soil and cash crops aplenty, many young men from England settled there in search of their own fortunes. Many of these men were second or third born sons who were denied a share in the family fortune because of the common practice of primogeniture. Initially believing they would find gold there, they pooled their money together to form a joint-stock company to make the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. However when it was discovered that there was no gold whatsoever in the area, the Chesapeake was thought to have met what was seen as its untimely end. Captain John Smith chronicles this in his History of Virginia, where he tells of those fixed on the hope of finding gold, “…There was no talk…but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold…” (Document F). If it weren’t for Smith and Chief Powhatan, the colony of Virginia would have been razed to the

Chesapeake Bay and New England DBQ The settlers of English origin began to migrate from England to North America in the 1600s. The foreigners came to the new world in search of wealth, religious freedom, and a fresh start on life. People of all types of backgrounds came to settle in the Americas. The settlers had two regions one could choose to go to; New England and the Chesapeake Bay.

Life in the American wilderness was brutal and short for the earliest Chesapeake settlers. Malaria, dysentery, and typhoid cut ten years off the life expectanct of immigrants from England. Half the people born in early Virginia and Maryland did not survive even twelve years, and few lived past their fifties, forties if they were women. The settlements only grew slowly, mostly from immigrants from England, and most of the immigrants were single men in their late teens and early twenties. There were barely any women and so they were fought for; eligible women did not remain single for long. Moreover, families were few as most men could not find wives and marriages were destroyed by deaths. Yet the Chesapeake colonies struggled on, becoming more

The group that made up the largest portion of the southern social ladder was the small farmers.

As Colonial Virginia entered into the 17th century, it was a land marked with opportunity to make a new and also, most importantly, profitable life in the New World. (Cutter Lecture) When the century began, however, it was not the citizens as a whole hoping to make a profit from this new land but rather a small group of greedy landowners profiting off of the work of their indentured servants. (CL) Sure the indentured servants were given a chance to fulfill their contract and one day become free to pursue their own dreams, but the likelihood of this in the beginning was next to none due to harsh living conditions. (CL) According to Richard Frethorne in 1623, "nor is there nothing to be gotten here

The reason William Bradford and the pilgrims came to the New World was to flee the religious persecution of the Anglican Church in England and come to a place where they could openly be puritan. This started the Great Migration of the Puritans. After them, almost all other emigrants from England to the colonies came for the same principle idea, religious freedom. From this starting principle, different colonies emerged. Two regions within the colonies became the Chesapeake, which consisted of Virginia and Maryland, and New England, which included, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

The regions in North America called New England, and Chesapeake, sound very similar on paper, because of their English origins. However, in reality, these two regions have more differences than similarities. The three main differences between these two regions were, their attitude/ goals for settling, their economic activities, and the type of settlers who lived there. The goals of the New England and Chesapeake were very different.

While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.

The different people who started settling in New England and the Chesapeake region could have come from the same country. But what they were looking for made a lot of sense which was; economic, religious and also their social differences. Their different societies started to lead on to different economics. Religion for New England was the most important, it was their goal in life, they wanted to be a religious example. There were a lot of social differences, and of course differences in people as well.

In the 1600’s those coming from the West Indies searching for land established a new colony south of Chesapeake. This colony was owned by the Lords Proprietors. To quickly populate the Carolina’s the Lords Proprietors offered large incentives attracting many colonists. These were things such as religious toleration, political representation, and large grants of land. With workers needed Carolina offered freedom dues; attracting many poor people that would work as indentured servants. As Carolina gained the common settlers and indentured servants the Lord Proprietors made sure to include great planters with large land grants and absolute power over their slaves. As the Lord Proprietors were in England they could not fully control Carolina. This was seen as men known as

By the 1700’s, New England, the Chesapeake region and the Southern Colonies developed into three distinct societies, despite coming from the same mother country, England. The regions of Colonial America each had a distinctive culture and economy entirely different from the other regions. Religion and religious tolerance was completely different in each region, running from being free to complete persecution. Ethnicity and racial composition ranged from almost complete British descent to a wide range of composition. Each region was politically and economically structured different and had its own identity. Each developed differently based on immigration trends, geography and other features. Throughout the colonization of Colonial America,

To cultivate these tobacco crops the Chesapeake Bay colonist utilized slave labor, and the use of indentured servants. The use of indentured servants soon died out when Virginia, forbid the whipping of white servants. In the Chesapeake colonies, religion was not as strict as in New England. In these colonies there were a number of small optional religions, this was very different than the ways of the New England colonies.

Because the low-grade tobacco was being overproduced unceasingly, prices dropped over the years. Tobacco had been the colony’s sole way of income for many years. Berkeley attempted to improve conditions by introducing other industries and building new towns in several places. Unfortunately, the towns could not be maintained and other attempts only resulted in dissatisfaction and increased taxes. Taxes were also increased due to a need for defense against the Dutch and the Indians. The rising price of English manufactured goods and the increasingly limited English market created more problems for the Virginians.