Amercian History - the Early Colonies

Kevin Bagwell

Mrs. Topper

History

2 September 2015

The Early Colonies

        The similarities between the two colonies are that they were each settlements of the English.  Both English colonies had their own version of Christianity.  Also, each colony suffered deeply from lack of food from weather conditions or problems caused by weather.  Besides food, the Natives gave the colonies much trouble which led to a lot of deaths among the English settlements.  Finally, both colonies struggled with diseases, which were nearly untreatable at that time period.  

        Jamestown and Plymouth differed in more ways than they were similar.  Jamestown colonized to claim new land and to become wealthier, and Plymouth colonized to escape religious persecutions.  When it comes to religion, Plymouth were Puritans and Jamestown were Anglican.  They also differed in government choices as well.  Plymouth established the Mayflower Compact, so they were self-governed.  Jamestown, on the other hand, was a representative government.  When it came to terrine Jamestown was in Virginia, a warm place that was good for plantations.  Then Plymouth was in Massachusetts, and the land there was rocky and was cold weathered; mostly good for fishing and lumbering.  

        When it came to success, I would say that Plymouth was much more successful than Jamestown.  Jamestown figured they would come into the New World and just take over and claim all of the wealth for their own, and leave once they had what they came for.  That was their game plan. At first, Jamestown was doing fine.  Then most of its people were wiped out due to diseases and the fighting with the Natives.  Jamestown struggled for nearly a decade until they became cropping for tobacco. Which eventually became more of a negative than a positive for them.  Now Plymouth was pretty much successful from the beginning.  They forged the Mayflower Compact; which helped them with mutual cooperation.  The Puritans planned to settle and used hard work to slowly colonize.  The people of Plymouth already had a government before they ever reached the New World. Jamestown’s people did not.  Plymouth established a good relationship with the Indians, and by the second year they had private land owners.  So in my opinion, I believe Plymouth was much more successful.