First Writing Assignment - the Differences Between Massachusetts and Virginia

First Writing Assignment: The Differences Between Massachusetts and Virginia

Massachusetts and Virginia were two states that started to settle in the New England region from 16 century. These two states grew with very different patterns from the aspects of economics, government, religion and society model. All these factors were closely interrelated, and they led to the contrasts between Massachusetts and Virginia.

The purposes of emigration to the New England were varied of the two different groups, who settled in Massachusetts and Virginia. Compared to Virginia colony, which was built for pursing immediate profit, the Massachusetts society was developed for realizing religious freedom. In 1607, sponsored by the Virginia Company, which " had more interest in searching for gold and in other ways exploiting the area's natural resources than in establishing a functional society", the first 104 settles was shipped from England and remained in Virginia (Foner 54). So the people in the first permanent England settlement, Virginia, incented to make money. However, the Puritans founded Massachusetts for freedom. "When Puritans emigrated to New England, they hoped to escape what they believed to be religious and worldly corruptions of English Society" (Foner 70).

One of the different elements between Virginia and Massachusetts was religion. Religion played significant influence in determining the life pattern, customs and social order in these two societies. According to the table of textbook, people in the Virginia colony belonged to Anglican (Foner 91). They remained close relationship with Great British. One of the characters of the religion in Virginia was that people had right to choose which they wanted to belong to. This was understood as a kind of religion tolerance. On the other hand, the religion of the people in Massachusetts was Puritan. They were looking for a new place to manage their church life. In contract to the Virginia, the Puritan area was not allowed to contain different religion believes. Here religion must be unique and only Puritan. " The tolerance of difference was not high on the list of Puritan value" (Foner 76) reflected this rule. Whereas, different colonies still appeared as people in Massachusetts held contrast opinions (Foner 77). The disagreements from Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams showed different voices from the Puritan. Finally, they were sent to the Rhode Island.

For more details of Puritans, one of the subgroup from it, named Pilgrims was so different for its belief. The Pilgrims was a minor group of separatist that wanted to separate from the Church of England (Foner 70). The separatist established the Plymouth Colony where is the Massachusetts today. The Pilgrims were specialized in their new thoughts in spiritual identity and strongly awareness of individual. They highlighted the equality among all of the people, and proclaimed that all of the people had right to attend church. However, the Puritans they still wanted to follow the English establishment. "They hoped to purify the church from within" and "they share many of the beliefs of the Church of England" (Foner 69). They did set restrict to limit the right of accessing to church, only the people in appropriate social statues would be allowed to do that.

The economic developments in these two colonies were affected by the natural condition, which came with the different demography and climates. In the beginning of colonization of Virginia, both investors and the colonists were aimed to find valuable minerals golden and silver. Whereas, according to the Spanish observer, they said there were no sliver and gold in the Jamestown colony (Foner 63). This situation proved that the quick way to get rich by collecting gold and silver didn't work at Virginia colony. What's more, majority of the early settlers in Virginia were not tend to cultivate crops in the land, "they would rather starve than work" (Foner 63). These elements determined that Virginia people would under the threat of food shortage. The newly introduce skill of tobacco cultivation helped Virginia to achieve economic prosperous. Later, the tobacco acted as the replacement of gold in the expansion of international market (Foner 65). Massachusetts located at the place where the climate was not so good as that in Virginia. Thus, people lived in the Massachusetts could not plant many valuable crops, which could be sold or exchanged. They also suffered serious epidemic, such as smallpox, that killed many people. In the beginning, people in Massachusetts survived with the help from the Indian (Foner 71). From their friendly guide, the colonist acquired skills of hunting and fishing. On the early stage, the living atmosphere in Massachusetts was peach with the good relation to Indian. From the aspect of product exporting, in Virginia were tobacco and some