Motivational Analysis of the New England and Chesapeake Colonies

The colonies of New England and Chesapeake sprouted from a common origin and spoke the same tongue yet had little in common with each other. Despite geographic and demographic differences in the Chesapeake and New England colonies, the most influential factor in determining why each colony developed differently was each colony’s motives. It was through this motivational difference that distinctly divided the New World into the North and South.

When immigrants fled form England due to religious persecution, they sailed to the New World and founded colonies such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New England as model Christian societies. They believed in constructing “cities upon hills,” as John Winthrop put it, to guide those lost in the darkness of sin in England. Being founded by strict religious followers led the colony of New England to have very religious values and ethics. Document B displays a list of Emigrants bound for New England, most of which are groups of large families . The arrangement of families in towns created a tight knit community, which allowed a democratic government to form, were each person in the community had input, thus making an effective government. Virginia on the other hand developed distinctly differently. As document C shows, a list of emigrants bound for Virginia displays near to a 3:1 ratio of men to women and now families whatsoever . This difference affected the way the Chesapeake colony evolved. Without a family to invest in, men of the Chesapeake usually returned their proceeds back into the land, which they reaped it from. This created a community separated by vast plantations, which had little unity and no collaboration, thus making it difficult to produce an effective and democratic government. These demographic differences indeed differentiated the New England colony from the Chesapeake colony, but more distinct differences were found in each colony’s geographic diversity.

Due to the harsh climate of the North, cash crops could not grow and therefore the northern colonies were well known for their richness in furs, fish, and timber. Because there was no need for a plantation, slaves were not introduced into the colony and therefore slavery was never morally accepted in the North. The Native American tribes of the Northeast were accepted in the New England colony and therefore trade flourished. Document E shows New England’s toleration and fairness of the Native Americans by displaying the governments handling of trade, “receiving such moderate profit as may enable them to serve God and their neighbors with their arts an trades comfortably.” The Chesapeake colony was situated in South, where the warm climate allowed cash crops to grow. This geographic difference greatly affected how the Chesapeake developed. Instead of trading with the Native Americans, the Chesapeake colony had little use for their services and decided to attempt to abolish their presence in the New World. As Document G suggests, the Chesapeake colony was at constant war with Native Americans, “For by our nearest computation we leave at out backs as many servants (besides Negroes) as there are freemen to defend the shores and all our frontiers [against] the Indians.” As the document also shows, the use of African slaves, or “Negroes,” was vital to the well being of the Chesapeake colony and therefore, slavery was morally accepted as a necessity to the South. The geographic differences of the New England and Chesapeake colonies were important in the development of each colony, but not nearly as much as the motivational differences.

New England was founded on the motivation of creating a “pure” society, which the people could govern and keep free of sin. The men and women who founded New England were building a home for themselves to live the rest of their lives in and a future