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Differences Between New England Colonies And Chesapeake Bay Colonies

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Historically speaking, homosapiens have inhabited the North America for millions of years as they came over on Pangaea’s land bridges. However, it wasn't until Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas and the Great Migration, that the population of North America began to stabilize and grow to form the two distinct regions. These two distinct regions eventually became known as the New England colonies and the Chesapeake Bay colonies. Some of the differences between the two regions included motivation of colonists, immigration patterns, and settlement patterns. Those who moved to the new world had one of two motivations: the hope of free worship or to gain profit through the New World’s untapped resources. With the religious persecution of …show more content…

Due to religion being historically inherited from previous generations, many families moved to the New England colonies; these colonies had an abundance of women and children. One source, the Ship’s list of Emigrants Bound for New England, written in Weymouth on March 20, 1635, listed those who migrated in large family groups to the new world. This source lists “Joseph Hull, … Agnes Hull, … Joan Hull, … Joseph Hull, … Tristram, … Elizabeth Hull, ... Temperance, … Grissel Hull, … Dorothy Hull...” as all coming over to the New World in a single family unit consisting of mostly those under the age of twenty-five; it included children, wives, husbands, and grandparents (Document B). One could believe that it was these already established social bonds that made reaching out and fitting into the new communities much easier than without. In contrast, those who migrated to the Chesapeake Bay colonies in search of wealth, usually traveled as single men passengers as many vowed to work as indentured servants to pay for their passage to the New World. One source, the Ship’s list of Emigrants Bound for Virginia, written in Ultimo in the July of 1635, stated “These unwritten names are to be transported to Virginia, embarked in the Merchant’s Hope” before going on to list all names of those who embarked on the journey; few of which were relatives, younger than twenty years old, or female (Document C). It …show more content…

One source written in Springfield, Massachusetts in the year 1636, titled Articles of Agreement, stated that “We intend that our town be composed of forty families, … rich and poor” and “everyone shall have a share of the meadow or planting ground” (Document D). This shows that the colonies of New England, specifically Massachusetts in this case, had an equal or greater ratio of people to farmable crop land. However, this may also be contributed by the poor rocky soil of the northern colonies in addition to the immigrant population. On the other hand, the Chesapeake Bay colonies had just the opposite problem; there were not enough people to protect the huge plots of farmland from the western Indians, Spanish, and Dutch invaders. The lack of protection left the politics of the Chesapeake Bay colonies relatively unstable due to the fear of invasion and invasion itself. One source titled Governor Berkeley and His Council on Their Inability to Defend Virginia Against a Dutch Attack, written in the December of 1673, directly stated that there were “more miles to defend that men of trust to defend them … [This] gives men fearful apprehensions of the danger they leave their estates and families in, while they are drawn from their houses to defend the borders” (Document

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