American Colony Lifestyles

So close yet so far

The lifestyle in the three American colonies sections, varied dramatically, the most obvious was the difference between the New England and the Southern colonies. The New England colonies varied in many ways from the southern colonies, the most obvious were the motives for the founders, the political and social beliefs, and economic differences. The New England colonies were much more interested in starting a new way of life for the generations to come, the Southern colonies based lived for the day and the quick dollar.

The Founders of the New England colonies had different views for the new world then the views of the Southern Founders. Although both founders were of English decent they came for very different reasons. The founders in the south formed the colonies in search of gold and fortunes. The crew consisted of second sons who did not receive any money from the family so they had a need for riches. In the New England Colonies the founder’s main motivations were for religious freedom. They wanted to form a perfect society were they could purify the wrongs that were being done within the Church of England. Because the Colonies were founded upon different reasons the people within the colonies spawned different political views.

The political system was set up differently in the two different areas, mostly because of their different religious beliefs. The New England colonies set up a Religious based Oligarchy; the people based all their laws on the rules of their religion. In the New England colonies they set-up town meetings where any man that believed in the religion could vote, this stopped many people so they soon developed the Half-way covenant, to include the people who said they would soon convert to the religion. In the south they setup a representative government called the house of burgess, this was a good idea, but only the wealthy land owners were allowed to participate. The differences in the governmental structure affected the social classes in the colonies.

People were looked at in very different ways in New England compared to the Southern Colonies. The social structure in the New England Colonies based itself around family. Families would have around 8-10 children and at the same time, people began to live after 65, compared to the average of 40-50 before. Because of the high birthrate and the extended life expectancy, it is known as the New England colonists that invented the modern day grandparents. In the South there was a high rate of disease and the life expectancy was around 50 years old. There were very few women in the south, making the women very important, giving them more power then in the north. The southern children were rarely given education, if any it was by tutors. In the North almost all children got education. These factors of family lead to a change in the economic structures.

The economic aspirations of the South were greatly different then those of the New England colonies. The New England soil was rocky and not very suitable for growing many cash crops. New England spent a lot of its resources on raising cattle and grain, where the South could focus on tobacco and rice. The New England colonies