Chesapeake and New England

A community is a group of people who work together towards a common goal and share a common interest. Lack of such a quality can and most likely will cause a struggling town or city to fall into the extremes of poverty and wealth. The New England community was so strong and so supportive in comparison to that of the Chesapeake Bay, that it is no wonder they developed into two distinctly different cultures before the year 1700. The Chesapeake region developed into a land of plantations and money-driven owners, with the elite wealthy, almost no middle class, and those in poverty creating the population. New England, on the other hand, had developed into a religion and family based society comprised of mostly middle class families by 1700. Looking at the terrain, ethic, government, and even the people themselves, reveals clues about how the drastic split in society came to be. It was one America, but two distinct societies had developed in it by the 1700's.

While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop their community when they reach the New World. Their religion also helped to regulate and control the behavior of the citizens of the society. The motives that drove the Pilgrims and Puritans away from anything familiar and the trust they placed in God only proved that they were going to make their life in the new world work, no matter what.

Not everyone in England was facing a harsh persecution; many travelers came to the New World with high hopes of money, which led to numerous conflicts. It was a land for the rich to get richer. Most of the settlers bound for Virginia and the Southern colonies had a "get rich or die trying" type of attitude. The only thing tearing them from home was a flimsy promise of gold that may or may not be there. The motive of such people is so radically different. There were no pacts of agreement, no common laws that kept them in a community once landing. This led the men to never develop any sense of belonging with their fellow men, causing a distinct survival society by 1700. Every man was for himself. It was a bitter game displaying the survival of the richest.

The travelers from England that headed for the Chesapeake Bay were predominantly men, which led to an unbalanced society and lack of wives to promote a family-based culture. The passenger list for one boat had a sex ratio of sixty-four men to eleven women. Not only was there a radical imbalance, only four of the men were above forty, while only eight total were above thirty (Doc. C). That left fifty-six young males headed to a new land with only their self-government of a House of Burgesses, the Anglican religion brought from England, and no common sense to keep impulses in check. Each one looking for money, the competition between them was too great. Brawls broke out as officers became too quick to use brute force to solve problems rather than logical reasoning and deduction. The general reaction to these fights was that they were "better forgotten" (Doc. F). This lack of a secure family resulted in detached relationships and a society based around men and their business by 1700.

In stark contrast, a ship bound for the New England area contained a sex ratio of twenty-two men to twenty-one women, which led to balanced families and few single young men. Going further, these men were not young and restless, but rather family men who had a wife and children to look after. They were not gentlemen who came by resources with their extended wealth, but men who had a trade and worked to provide for their family, men such as tailors and clothiers (Doc. B). Their strong sense of community and fear of God drove them toward the establishment of solid society. All breaches of such a system were to be punished accordingly, but not before a fair trial.

It was the religion that brought many of the New Englanders to America and religion that kept them in line, adding to the uniqueness of their society that was prominent by 1700. Through their undying passion and need to be accepted through their church, the laws of their government were, in fact, laws of the church. Since they already had this instilled belief of right and wrong, helping others was second nature. It was only natural that a people so peaceful would help the needy hobble along in their society. No matter what status someone had in England, everyone was equal in America. Everyone in the colony was given an equal opportunity under the self-imposed law (Doc. D). They made their own system and trusted in it enough to obey the laws, as well as the people who made them. The New Englanders were not afraid to enforce what they believed in. It was this immediate transformation that led to a strong middle class and weak poverty and wealthy classes in the future.

The lack of religion in the Chesapeake Bay colonies was a key factor in the distinct separation of the two societies by 1700. The laws of religion did not control the Chesapeake men; therefore, the laws of the English empire were imposed. These had little effect on the people since there was not a regimented power to enforce them. They hated and feared the government, suspecting that there was a distant authority. Document G represents the general feeling the men had towards the government in that region: it takes our money to restore its own wealth and abuses the power given.

The two cultures may also have been the result of the terrain the groups occupied. In the Chesapeake Bay region, the colonists settled on swampy marshland that was hard to defend and even harder to survive in. Disease swept through the colonies, killing more than half of the men. Mosquitoes were thick and carried disease