Chesapeake And New England Colony Dbq

Chesapeake and New England Colony DBQ

The Crusades of the middle ages introduced much innovative and formerly unheard of merchandise into Western Europe; however the scarcity of these luxury goods instilled Europeans with drive to find easier access to the Far East. Although desired “Northwest Passage” never was found, joint-stock companies, like the Virginia Company of London, settled colonies in the New World for untapped resources such as silver and other tradable goods. Many more corporations followed suit, settling mainly in the Chesapeake Bay area, their small settlements eventually developing into the Chesapeake colonies. The Chesapeake colonies were focused primarily on profitable enterprises. At the same time, the New England colonies were being settled with a whole different set of initiatives, principally religious freedoms and family. Governing bodies were established, with their success dependent on the quality of the settlers the colony attracted. The different motives for settlement affected the routine events in such a way that the New England and Chesapeake colonies differed very greatly from one another even though they were both mainly settled by the English.

While the Protestant Revolution raged in Europe, Catholics and other radicals were fleeing to the New World to find religious freedom and to escape prosecution. Because of this, the northern colonies became more family and religiously orientated as the families of the pilgrims settled there. From the Ship’s List of Emigrants Bound for New England we see that six families on board made up sixty nine of the ships passengers (B). Not only did families tend to move to New England, but whole congregations made the journey to find a place where they could set up “a city upon a hill”, and become an example to all who follow to live by as John Winthrop put it to his Puritan followers (A). Contrastingly, the Chesapeake colonies only had profit in their mind, which pushed them to become agriculturally advanced. Since Virginia, one of the Chesapeake colonies, was first settled with the intention of becoming an economic power house, it was mainly inhabited by working-class, single men. The average age of a man leaving for the Americas was only twenty two and a half years old according to the Ship’s List of Emigrants bound for Virginia (C). The harsh conditions of the colony did not appeal to those who wished to settle with a family. Added on to that was the fact that the average lifespan in the Chesapeake colonies was a full ten years or more shorter than that in other more desirable living quarters to the north.

Without the restrictions families imposed, men were rowdier and less willing to live with less than was promised them. In exchange for passage to the New World and a piece of land many men became indentured servants, spending their first seven years in servitude to the man who paid for their voyage. When the land was not voluntarily given the readily feisty men were pushed to fight for what they thought was rightfully theirs. Even the infamous Captain John Smith agreed that “the worst with their golden promises made all their men slaves in hope of recompenses.” Such men as Capt. Smith talked of gave false hope to their men which only provoked them further (F). The “headright system” which was used to supplement the dwindling working population, gave fifty acres per worker a man brought to work on a plantation. This helps explain the underprivileged white planters’ feelings towards the rich plantation owners. The poor whites felt that they had been cheated out of their own wealth by “unworthy favorites and juggling parasites” that they felt were the upper class, which one must not take at direct face value because the monetary disparity between the two parties was so large (H). Because of the make up of the populace of the Chesapeake those in power had a very hard time keeping control and like Governor Berkley had to call for help because of their