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Akua Sefa Liebesman AP U.S History/Literature 22 January 2012 DBQ (Early Colonial America) The Chesapeake colonies consisted of Virginia and Maryland which are located along the Atlantic Ocean in the South whilst the New England colonies, consisting of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, were located north along the Atlantic Ocean. There were many reasons as to why the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed differently. Although these two colonies were primarily of English descent, over time the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed into two very distinct societies due to their motives, religious qualities and economic systems. The Chesapeake and New England Colonies were found based on very different motives. The Chesapeake colonies were either found by joint-stock companies or as royal colonies and with them came a plethora of men with the desire for fame and gold. In 1624 Captain John Smith, the founder of the first British colony in North America, Jamestown, wrote a document titled History of Virginia in which he documented the sort of people that were coming over to Virginia. From this document, it is known that there were people who wanted only gold and that was the reason they were coming over. These people thought of nothing but gold and promised others the dream they wished to fulfill in order to get those men to become their slaves (Document F). More of these people came about in the Chesapeake colonies which made the focus of the colonies all about money unlike the New England colonies which were found on the basis of religious freedom by the Puritans. The Puritan faith itself is against the accumulation of materialistic wealth such as gold and rather consists of a community working together to survive rather than an every man for themselves way of thinking like the Chesapeake colonies. The first thing that the New England colonists wanted to do when they reached the colony they were heading to was to find themselves a minister (Document D) not find themselves fame and make themselves rich. Because of the differences in the motives with which the colonies were founded upon, the Chesapeake colonies and the New England colonies developed two distinctive societies. A second explanation as to why the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed differently is because of their religious qualities. The New England colonies made their religion a very important part of their life as expressed by John Winthrop, leader of the Mass. Bay Colony, in Document A. Winthrop wanted his colony to be looked upon as a city on a hill

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referring to the holy land of Jerusalem. He wanted his colony to be the best of all colonies and to be viewed as perfect by all who looked upon it and this led to a close knit community amongst the colony. Because of their religious views, the colony was able to work together to survive and become members of the same body. Of course, there was a downfall to the close knit community they created and the heavy placement of importance on their religious beliefs which occurred in the events of the Salem Witch Trials in which many people died because of accusation in which their faith was used against them and the banishments of people like Anne Hutchinson. This goes to show how far the New England colonies would go for their religion whilst in the Chesapeake colonies; religion was never of true importance nor was community. The people lived very far apart so your closest neighbor could be a few miles from you. Granted, they did go to church but making money was of greater importance and Because of the major difference in the religious qualities of the two colonies, two dissimilar societies developed. The third cause of the two different societies that developed in the Chesapeake and New England colonies is the difference in the economic systems. The New England colonies consisted of families who came over to North America together (Document B) and these families were given a plot of land (Document D) on which they worked on together and harvested not for marketing but rather to just sustain the family. Some other jobs that were available in the New England colonies was ship building or trading which was not very prominent in the Chesapeake colonies. The immigrants that were heading to the Chesapeake colonies consisted of mostly White men and indentured servant who came with no family and were old enough to work, either for their own personal gains or to pay off their debt (Document C). By the 1700s the colonies were in the process of switching over from indentured servitude to slaves, especially in the Chesapeake colonies in which slaves were in high demand. The Chesapeake colonies consisted of large plantations on which cash crops, such as tobacco, were grown and because they were being grown at such a high rate, more and more workers were needed and over time. For the reason that the economic systems of the New England colonies and the Chesapeake colonies were so different, contrasting societies developed. The Chesapeake and New England colonies developed into two very distinct societies due to their motives, religious qualities and economic systems that developed over time. The two colonies were never going to be alike as from the beginning they were separated as they had different views both for the present and the future and these views led each colony unto two very different paths.