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Economic Differences Between New England And The Chesapeake Region

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New England and the Chesapeake region were settled and established by the English yet the differences between them are wide and numerous. The obvious separation between the two is that Chesapeake region's economy way based on trade while New England was forced to create their own economy. The Chesapeake region had tobacco, a cash crop popular in England, to plant and make themselves rich in a few years. New England on the other hand “avoided the trap of of a plantation economy” and instead relied on fisheries, carrying trade, and shipbuilding. Another separation between the two is how they started. Chesapeake began for economic reasons while New England began for religious purposes. Of the two, the Chesapeake was far more wealthy but also more issues to deal with. …show more content…

This surplus was forced to beg in the cities until the idea of an indentured servant became popular. During the seventeenth century,”only a quarter of the Chesapeake immigrants arrived as freemen.....three quarters of the immigrants arrived as indentured servants” where they signed a contract to work for four to seven year and then become a free man and be granted fifty ares of land. While sounding like the perfect solution, eventually the good land was used up and the dead land was given to the poor, keeping them poor. After years of oppression and being ignored, Bacon's rebellion was ignited. Though it was defeated, the rebellion (among other factors) gave the impression that slavery was a much more profitable investment than indentured servants. So New England could actually be considered lucky to have avoided a plantation

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