New_England_Colonies

The differences between the Chesapeake and the New England colonies before at outset vary on a wide range of issues anywhere from religious views, population, as well as economy. In fact the sole purpose of each other’s colonizing was totally on opposite sides of the scale. The New Englanders were based largely on Puritan separatists as well as large families in hopes of finding religious freedom as they wished. The Chesapeake however, was mostly single white men brought for little spiritual enthusiasm and mostly focused on a profit-making and economic gains, which brings up the tobacco production as well as the slave trade. One of the most significant differences was the religious thoughts between the two colonies. In 1700, nearly all the churches in the colonies were either Congregational (in New England) or Anglican (Give Me Liberty!, 110). The New Englanders came to escape the force of religion and to maintain their own family-based practices with extreme reverence and devotion to god. The Chesapeake were a lot less critical on religious practices but had the Anglican Church in which not many people participated, but was still considered by some settlers. Then “The Great Awakening” had came which was brought upon by English minister George Whitefield. He taught his intense preaching’s to colonies from Georgia to New England. In every sermon, he asked his listeners to look into their hearts and answer the question, “Are you saved'” If not, they must change their sinful ways and surrender their lives to Christ” (Give Me Liberty!, 152).This brought thousands of listeners to his sermons. What minister Whitefield had done was enlarged the boundaries of liberty between the two religious views and had inspired several dissenting churches. Another difference between the two which pretty much go hand in hand is the population and the economy the colonies had inspired. New England had brought Puritans, Catholics and the well known religious-based large families. As mentioned previously they had no means at all by making any type of economic gain but to seek for their religious freedoms. This made the type of lifestyle for them somewhat complicated and left them to forge for themselves which made the average male settler a skilled craftsman. “Nine-tenths of the population resided in rural areas and made their livelihood from farming” (Give Me Liberty!, 116). The society was so family oriented, they mostly relied on their gardening skills, carpentry, and fishing just to feed their own family. However along the mid colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania farmers would grow both for their selves and for sale which would provide work for family, employing wage laborers, and in some instances slaves. Now, because the survivors of the Chesapeake who traveled with John Smith turned to the Powhatan Indians to teach them to grow corn and tobacco, the Chesapeake society revolved around the production of tobacco and improving its community as a whole. Once the mass production of tobacco started, the income from it paid for indentured servants and black slaves. This therefore made up the majority of the population as slaves. An astonishing fact says “To bolster Chesapeake labor force nearly 50,000 convicts from Britain (a group not desired in Britain) were sent to work in the tobacco fields”( Give Me Liberty!, 109). This goes to show how vast the difference is between the types of lives these two colonies led. As stated above, the reasons go to show that it’s obvious that what would one day become the United States, the diverse amount of people as a whole was remarkable. “The colonies’ economic growth contributed to a high birthrate, long life expectancy, and expanding demand for consumer goods” (Give Me Liberty!, 124). Although the two colonies had extremely two different mind sets for immigrating and colonizing they both managed to stay extremely successful and productive despite their differences.