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Allison Singleton
September 12, 2012
APUSH DBQ
DBQ
When the New World was discovered, European countries started flocking to it for its
natural resources and space. The New England colonies were set up by the English as were the
Chesapeake colonies. Even though they were both set up by the same country, they had great
differences such as their motives for settling, their religions, and their community structures.
The motives that the English had for settling in the New England and the Chesapeake
colonies were vastly different. In the Chesapeake area, the settler who came over, were around
the age of 20 and mostly men. This shows that the people who had to come to that region of
America needed to be healthy, fit, and hardy because of hard labor and diseases. The people who
settled in the New England area settled there and were actually healthier then they were before
they came. The cold air was unpolluted and refreshing. Also the cold would kill germs so there
was not as much disease. Because there were fewer germs in New England, people would bring
their families. Also when the English colonized the Chesapeake colonies, they did it for wealth.
As History of Virginia says in an excerpt, The worst [among us were the gold seekers who] with
their golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompenses. There was no talk but
dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold (F) Shows that the colony was extremely greedy.
The New England colony was based around religion. They did not come to the New World for
wealth, but for family and because they usually did not agree with the Anglican Church. They
were separatists or people who wanted to change the church and when they couldnt they came
to America with their families. Another reason why people may have come to the New World
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would be because they had to. Governor Berkley and his council asked the King of England for
troops to help protect Virginia against Dutch invasions. If the King did send troops, then they
would probably be forced to go to America to fight. Their motives would simply be that they had
to or they died (G).
Religion was highly influential to the development of the New England and Chesapeake
colonies. In the New England colonies, almost the entire reason for them to come over to the
New World was to have religious freedom. They were mostly puritans and believed that the
Church of England had some flaws that could be fixed. When they werent fixed, they got
banished to the Americas. The Chesapeake colonies got sent to the New World to gain wealth so
they were still Anglican. The English came over to escape religious persecution, although they
ended up persecuting people anyway. They banished people from New England towns and
because of that places like Rhode Island were born. The Chesapeake colonies were fairly tolerant
of religions because they werent in America because of religion. Religion also greatly affected
the government of the colonies. In New England many laws were based around religious views.
In A Model of Christian Charity written by John Winthrop, the entire document is about how
Christians should act and how wonderful it would be if the entire world was Christian. Therefore
people should convert (A). These ideas were the base of the Massachusetts Bay Colonys
government because it was written by their governor.
The community structure of the two different colonies was different because of varying
lifestyles in both areas. One of the main reasons why the government and communities were
different was because of the agriculture in the two areas. In the Chesapeake region, the soil was
very fertile and the growing season was very long. In New England, the soil was very poor and
the growing season was short. The New England colonies were close together was because they
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didnt have any reason to be spread out. They didnt need farming space and they were so family
oriented that that worked really well for them. In the Chesapeake the family lifestyle was
based around work. They had a lot of land because they would work on plantations. That was
how people in the south lived. They were not focused on much more than work. Another main
reason why the two areas were so different communally was because of their views on slaves.
The Souths work required slavery because they did not have enough people to run a large
plantation. The North did not have to have labor so they were very against slavery. It was a
difference in moral code.
The significance of these differences was very drastic, and they shaped the country as we
know it. The differences in faith gave America the opportunity to be supportive of their religion
while being tolerant other religions. The community differences gave us diversity and a variety
of agriculture. Finally, the motives for coming to America were different for the New England
and Chesapeake colonies which eventually lead to a balance between wealth and religion.