English Settlers: The English Settlement Of New England

The New England and Chesapeake colonists settled in the new world for different reasons like religious freedoms in the North and quick profits in the South.

The first colonists to settle in New England were the Puritans in order to gain religious freedom. The environment of the New England colonies was a lot colder than the other two colonies because they were farthest North. Although it did have a positive impact because it was prevented from any life threatening diseases. The negative factor was due to the severe winters that killed many people. The natural resources were definitely important than agricultural crops because of the short spring and summer seasons to grow anything; they were at least able to find fish, trees, and furs. Most colonists had to grow their own food because of the thin and rocky soil. In order to have a better economy, fishing, lumbering,

The New England colonists, except for Rhode Island, were predominantly Puritans who practiced very strict religious lives. The civil government in these colonies dealt quite harshly with those who dared to disagree with the Puritan church. People were being exiled for speaking out against Puritanism. They whipped baptists. They cropped, or cut off, the ears of Quakers. They even went as far as to hang Quaker missionaries. They did all of this in an order to proselytize and convert people to be Puritan.

The New England colonies developed rapidly, largely due to the influence of the Puritans. The Puritans came to the new world seeking religious freedom and helped found most of the colonies in the New England region. The Puritans wanted a United government that will later become the basis for the Unites States, they believed that the overall well being of the people was more important than the well being of the few, and the Puritans believed that religion, church, and community were important aspects of the people’s lives. The Puritans’ religion allowed them to prosper in the political, economical, and social development of the New England Colonies in the 1630-1660’s.

Kenneth Lockridge, A New England Town: The First Hundred Years (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1970)

Throughout the 17th century, many European countries sent explorers and settlers to America. The two most eminent countries that colonized area of America were Spain and Great Britain. Britain began to establish colonies in the northeast; in the area they called New England. The Spanish interest lied in the southwest. Living in two unassociated areas caused the Spanish settlements and the New England colonies to be quite unlike each other. When faced with the task of finding similarities between the two, not much can be found. It is the differences that stand out when studying the English and Spanish, from religion to politics to ideals.

With the different types of people being sent to each settlement, both had different objectives and outcomes. New England from the very beginning was determined to work together for two goals: to preach and to follow the ways of God. The had to become tightly knitted as one and do everything from mourn to dance with one another. The New England colonies or the Massachusetts Bay colony in this case acted as a “city upon a hill” where everyone else especially God was watching their every movement. If they did false against God then they

Connecticut, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and New Haven all made up the region that was New England. It laid just north of the colony of Chesapeake. The New Englanders wanted and longed for religious freedom. They were known as Puritan Separatists, they wanted complete separation from the Church of England. Protestantism was an evolution that thrived in England once the Church separated from Catholicism. These people wanted to turn toward Calvinism, because of this they began to be called “Separatists”. They were not alone in this, joined with them where

The Roanoke was an important part in Virginia history, it was the first attempt for a permanent English settlement in the new world. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1585 and he brought 100 colonists with him to Virginia and left them behind. Walter also had brought his daughter which soon gave birth to the first English child born in America. Her name was Virginia Dare. He had to go back to England because he had to fight in the Spanish war. He sent a fleet of ships in between the 3 years he was fighting but they did not make it to the settlement, instead they landed on a different island and the captain of the ship refused to go any farther than that island. When Raleigh returned 3 years later the only clues that him and the colonists that came with him found were the words CROA and CROATON carved into 2 trees. Before Raliegh had left them 3 years earlier he told them if there was was any trouble then to carve a cross in a tree. They searched all the trees around but did not find any crosses carved. But recently they have done a tree test on the wood that the word CROATON was carved into and they figured out that when he was gone there was extreme drought conditions that were going on while Raleigh was gone. Nobody really knows what happened to the settlement but there has been very educated guesses from historians. One guess came from a historian studying this subject ”That the croaton indian tribe 50 miles away might have something to do with it.” But the

Behind its neighbors, England finally decided to invest in settling in the New World during the 17th century. Many of the expeditions to North America were made by private organizations; stock companies and the rich alike shared a common ideal of having a fresh start from outside their homeland. Two colonies with one common nationality, however, became two diverse establishments in North America. The colonies in New England and the Chesapeake region developed into two substantially contrasting ways of life. The main colony in the New England region was Massachusetts, which included the Puritans, a group of religious settlers who wanted to purify the Protestant Church of England.

The seventeenth century brought plenty of changes to North America. One of the most significant ones was the formation of the thirteen colonies along the North American east coast. These colonies are generally divided into New England, Middle and South or the Chesapeake regions. Most of these colonies were settled by the British, yet they developed differently as the years went by. Some developed into more egalitarian colonies and some not. The greatest differences could be seen in the New England and Chesapeake regions. Even though the New England and Chesapeake regions were settled originally by The British, they had their own differences which were influenced by many of factors, including the reasons they were founded, their social

The New England colonist living in the new world in the early 1600’s went from a society that had a few slaves, to a society that accepted slavery as a way of life by the early 1700’s. Not one single event or year can be definitely set as to when slavery became a permanent staple of the colonies. The institution of slavery was introduced over time. It took a little over a century of perpetuating laws, codes, and failed rebellions before African slavery became a corner stone of colonial life.

Firstly, the motivations of the earliest settlers in New England and Virginia were significantly different. In Virginia, the earliest settlers were funded by the Virginia Company and came to America with the ambitions to get rich quickly. Their main focus was finding gold and they initially set to work mining for it, instead of building shelter or establishing a food source. Captain John Smith, one of the earliest settlers in Jamestown and savior of the colony, explains these early mistakes and how he tried to convince those early settlers to focus on fulfilling their basic needs first (Doc 5). New England, on the other hand, was established by Puritans who were motivated for religious freedom. The Puritans had been persecuted in England because they felt strongly that the Anglican church needed to be reformed to become more pure. To escape this persecution they came to America to establish a “city upon a hill.” John Winthrop gave a sermon to the Puritan settlers aboard the Arbella to describe his vision for the colony they were going create (Doc 1). He hoped it would be centered around God and encompass the values of community and brotherhood. Second of all, the differences in the demographics of the early settlers was

English settlements along the eastern seaboard later became the thirteen colonies which would form the US. To establish a presence in North America, England relied on private trading companies, one in particular, the Virginia Company, established the country’s first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Puritans, reformers who wished to “purify” the Church of England, settled in New England but their efforts lacked success and some wanted to split from the church. Among those who desired to split from the church were William Bradford and John Winthrop who both assisted in bringing new settlers to the colonies. The Puritans’ values of hard work, thrift, and responsibility led to thriving settlements and financial success.

Before the English settlers moved to New England, over one hundred thousand Indians were already living in this area. The Indians relied on natural resources the land and water around them could supply them with. They were hunters and gatherers, which means, they hunted animals and gathered the supplies they needed. The Indians were very good about only taking what they needed, and they using the entire thing if they could. When the English settlers moved in, many Indians did not know how to respond. Some did not like the English settlers at all and refrained from helping them or receiving help from the settlers. Other Indians tried to aid the settlers and in turn the English settlers tried to aid the Indians. In time, some of the Indians