Different Viewpoints

There are many distinct differences between the northern and southern settlers that came from Europe to inhabit the new world. Ranging form religious to economic backgrounds, these differences eventually lead to opposing viewpoints on slavery. The Protestants, mainly the Puritans, settled the north. Their strong religious convictions stemming from religious persecution in England and lack of a long growing season lead to an independence from slavery. The southern parts of the colonies were settled by a wider variety of Europeans. These Europeans learned to grow tobacco and eventually cotton in the long, humid Virginia growing season. In the early days of the Chesapeake colony there wasn’t need for slaves but eventually the colonists would need a cheap work force to make their crops financially feasible.

When King Henry the VIII wanted to annul his marriage Catherine of Aragon and was denied by the pope, he created the Anglican Church and placed himself as the head of it. In the years following the creation of the Anglican Church, Protestants began to rise in power within the church hierarchy. By the year 1658 most English people considered themselves to be protestant, but the question was how protestant? Puritans believed that merely leading an outwardly moral life was not enough. These Puritans were Protestants that had a more radical view on the worship of God. Puritans believed that it was important for the individual to have a spiritual rebirth or conversion and were opposed to some of the more Catholic styled ceremonies that the Anglican Church performed.

The years from 1629 to 1640 are known as the “Eleven Years Tyranny” in Great Britain by the Whig historians. Those were the years that King Charles the 1st ruled without a parliament and Archbishop William Laud purged the Anglican Church of its Protestant members. The Protestants had long been trying to eliminate the office of bishop, these bishops composed one quarter of Parliament’s upper house and the removal of this office could greatly jeopardize the Anglican Church’s power. This was also a time of great economic depression and epidemics. The cities were overcrowded