Their Families Like The New England Settlers example essay topic

The New England and Chesapeake regions were settled by the English for two completely different reasons, and by people with completely different attitudes towards forming colonies. The New England settlers focused on Puritan values and traditions that they brought with them to the colonies, including their family values, work ethic, and religious influences. On the other hand, the Chesapeake was settled by men looking to ravage the New World for gold and fortune, establishing their colonies strictly for economic reasons. A large portion of the New England colonies were Puritans. Their beliefs tried to bring together all the colonists into a community, where everyone worked together under God. In Document A, Winthrop discusses how the colony should be run.

It is an example of the belief that everyone in the colony should work together and work for each other so that the whole colony can prosper. He claims the colony "shall be as a city upon a hill", or a religious utopia. Clearly the New England colonies were settled with religion guiding the settlers. In Document B the list of emigrants is greatly dominated by families. The settlers brought their entire family with them on the voyage, which speaks of the value these Puritan settlers had regarding the family. In Document D the agreement is to have the towns be composed of forty families.

These families will include the rich and the poor, the New England settlers are of diverse prosperity, yet all working together for the prosperity of the colony as a whole. The same document specifies that "everyone shall have a share of the meadow or planting ground", another part of the unity of the community. Document E is another testament to this unity; it says that there is to be no oppression on others to "enrich themselves suddenly and inordinately". No one is in New England to get rich and oppress others; it is a sin according to the document.

They are a part of the colony to provide for their families, and work hard to benefit their way of life, as well as their right to practice religion. The Chesapeake region was settled for entirely separate reasons compared to the New England colonies. We see this immediately as it is mostly young men settling in this region according to Document C. There were very few women, and no trace of any families or relations. Obviously these settlers were not looking for a place to live with their families like the New England settlers. The Chesapeake settlers were looking for money and economic prosperity. In Document F John Smith talks about how gold hungry his crew was.

They were only settling to get rich, without concerns of making families, or helping the whole colony prosper. They were in it to take the gold and bring it back to England so they could get rich. Document G has evidence that most of the men that arrived in the Chesapeake were not up to hard work, "whose labor will hardly maintain them". This is because most of the people that did settle in this region were from the aristocracy in England and not used to working. Unlike New England which stressed hard work, the Chesapeake settlers expected to get rich by merely picking gold off the ground. They had hopes of "bettering their condition by sharing the plunder of the country with them".

In Document H, Bacon attacks the attitude of the Chesapeake Bay settlers. Being of the Piedmont area, Bacon and other farmers were getting the short end of the stick when it came to Virginian wealth. The Tidewater planters were prospering at the expense of the Piedmont farmers. In the document Bacon claims that the Tidewater settlers have "sucked up the public treasure". It can be noted that he says "public" treasure, referring to the idea that the wealth of Virginia should belong to all the colonists, and not just a few. The New England colonists gained their wealth by working together as a whole, while in the Chesapeake a few colonists got wealthy while others got shafted.

It was more of a struggle for individual prospects rather than community prosperity. This was the major difference between the two regions. The difference in societies was clearly due to the different attitudes the colonists possessed towards the settlements they formed. The New England colonies were a community of religious followers who had high regard for civil institutions as well as religious beliefs, while the Chesapeake colonists were in contrast driven by economics and individual concerns. These conflicting attitudes led to the evolution of colonies whose societies were bound within regional borders.