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Differences Between New England And Chesapeake Colonies Dbq

Decent Essays

During the 17th century, many different economic, geographic, and social factors shaped the Chesapeake region and New England. After 1700, 7 Years War, and the Great Awakening, the colonies became more similar. However, during the 17th century, the colonies had many differences in their purposes, economy, governments, and ways of life. The difference in development between New England and the Chesapeake region occurred because they were founded for different purposes, they had very different political organizations, and their state of unification was very different.
The first reason why New England and the Chesapeake region developed very differently is because they were settled for different reasons. New England was settled in order to be …show more content…

In New England, the governments and policies were focused around God and his rights to property and fair wages. The Articles of Agreement dictated that every citizen was allowed, by God, property rights to put their houses on (Doc. D). The New England policies are also evident from the ordinance for wage and price regulations in Connecticut where it says that “all tradesmen and laborers consider the religious end of their callings, which is that receiving such moderate profit as may enable them to serve God and their neighbors with their arts and trades comfortably” (Doc. E). These two articles (Doc. D and E) show that New England was focused on fair prices and wages and rights to property under the eyes of God. Unlike New England, the Chesapeake region seeks to separate landowners from servants and everyone has a distinct role in society, whether it be lesser or greater than another’s role. As shown in Governor Berkeley and his Council’s response when they were unable to defend Virginia against a Dutch attack, there is a clear and evident separation between the treatment of the landowners and the servants (Doc. …show more content…

Most people that came from England to the Chesapeake region were young, able-bodied men (Doc. C) who were fit to work. This was because of the requirement for lots of labor in farming the tobacco and other crops in the Chesapeake region. This caused the Chesapeake region to be composed of large, spread out plantations which meant that the region was less unified. Meanwhile, most of the people who moved from England to New England were families (Doc. B). This was because the idea of practicing free Puritan religion was more appealing to people who wanted to raise families. This caused the New England region to be much more residential and compact than that of the Chesapeake region. Since the unification of the Chesapeake region was more spread out and composed of plantations, the land would appeal to wealthy land owners and since the unification of New England was much more compact and religion based, it appealed more to people who wanted to raise

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