Comparing The southern Colonies And New England

Southern colonies, the first permanent settlement in the new world was Jamestown Virginia in 1607. This was at the same time as the English civil war. The southern colonies include Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. 105 passengers traveled on three ships first to Jamestown. The passengers were all white males, and there were 39 sailors. There is secular motivation, they wanted to make money, and they did not come for religious purposes. They came seeking gold in hopes that they would be as prosperous and successful as the Spaniards were in South America. However, they did not find much gold. They also came looking for the Northwest Passage, and a product that would be exchanged in Europe for money. This product was fur. As they searched for a Northwest Passage they stumbled upon a great bay which they would later name The Chesapeake Bay. There are four great title rivers that go into the Chesapeake Bay. The James River was used the most. In 1607 John Smith traveled to Jamestown. He was active in the Virginia company, which saw Jamestown as a “profit-seeking venture”. We will discuss him towards the end of this essay.

The first initial settlement of the British is Plymouth in 1620 by pilgrims. Also known as puritans(the godly); they have officially separated from the church of England. During the time when King James the first was king, the pilgrims were greatly mistreated by England. King James was apart of an absolute monarchy. He felt that having a leading role in supporting the church was seen as a unifying factor. The puritans had a very simple-minded view of the church of England. They felt that the church of England was too much like the Roman Catholic church and that they should follow the teachings and ceremonies only rooted in the Bible. Since the church of England was a state church everyone was expected to pay taxes to the church, but puritans did not like this and refused to pay. The puritans had religious motivation. Some of them had the motivation to acquire land as they saw this as a new chance at life in the new world. Most puritans wanted the freedom to practice their religion without interference, so they settled in Plymouth to be given this freedom.

In Virginia, there is a year-round growing season, the soil was marshy and wet due to the closeness of the Chesapeake Bay. There was a lack of drinkable water and not much to eat. This is why the Indians avoided settlement in Virginia. One reason was the soil was terrible and hindered agriculture. Reason number two was the tidal water rivers that were filled with deadly diseases. Due to these circumstances, the southern colonies needed to focus less on seeking gold and silver for an easy profit and more on plantations and planting crops. The stable crop mentality is that the value of a single crop can provide a meaningful life. This is where a joint-stock company comes into the picture. A joint-stock company is a business organization promoting investment to make a profit. The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company approved by King James 1 to create new settlements in the colonies as well as the growing of tobacco. King James granted the Virginia colony a charter to aide in the establishment of the colony. The colonists had a rough time finding raw materials that would bring in money, so they leaned on the Indians and shipments from England to receive food. However; they were saved by tobacco; becomes a staple crop for Virginians. Tobacco drew in merchants and more settlers. It needed to be picked when it was not too ripe and not too green. Virginians believed that the production of staple crops was the key to a stable life. The Virginia company will begin to bring grants of land called head rights. This means by law that any head of household (a man) will be granted 50 acres of land which they could develop into plantations. Plantations were originally small settlements applied then to large landholding with agriculture staple crop productions, making of clothes, shoes, and homes. By the end of the 18 century, the invention of combing cotton/cotton gin/ cotton was the most valuable staple crop in the north/ south. There were three valuable pillars in the southern colonies these included land, staple crop production, and slavery.

Virginians offer head rights in order to stimulate settlements, many established plantations on the James River. As discussed before the staple crop in Virginia is tobacco. In South Carolina, it is rice, hemp, and cotton. The large inexpensive labor force will become the institution of slavery. The slaves didn't speak English well and were not educated for cultural practices. In the 1660s slavery will become an institution in Virginia and begins to be written in the law. Once protected by law there will be no more contract. Slavery is inheritable through the maternal side, and there is no way out. To escape slavery your options were limited. You could run away joining Indian villages, and establish your own communities, very small chance of being manumitted(freed), and the last option is suicide.

Some other values to mention were Rural isolation; people on landholdings that are separate from their neighbors, if wanted to visit neighbors you could walk or ride on a horse. This allowed them to develop a sense of independence. Education in the south wasn't good until the 1950s. The first colleges were established in Williamsburg Virginia. Due to rural isolation education levels decreased because kids couldn't get to school and education was based on agriculture. Indentured servitude which involved contracted laborers, contracted to serve a master for 4-7 years, the master provides food, shelter, sometimes land, and maybe a small payment in Tobacco. Indentured servants can be men or women. They were used to farm large plantations. The well educated served as tutors, and the women served as governesses. Lastly, Southern Hospitality involves extending the courtesy. The south is seen as nicer and more giving because they only have each other. They are further from other places so their communities are small. They enjoy socializing and meeting new people, after all, they do come from cultural traditions.

New England was a glacial area. The soil was very thin and rocky, it was cold in the winter and the growing season of 2-4 months. They will grow wheat, barley, and rye. Landholdings are small, alotted by township, but are supposed to be alotted on the basis of need. So there is no need for an expensive labor force. No year-round growing season. Slavery is legal, but will never become institutionalized like the south because it is not perceived as necessary to the production of staple crops. Puritans will develop ports in Boston; this will become the biggest port in the 18th century. Selling and trading fish(preserved it and dried them) and sent it to England. The cash crop is fish, England bought them because they want to feed their sailors as they are in the process of building the biggest navy. They also sold timber( wood) which could be used in the making of ships. One of the most prosperous trades will develop in Boston called triangular trade. This involved the shipping of goods from Britain to West Africa in exchange for slaves, molasses(a cheap by-product of sugar), booze/rum, they Gave molasses as a reward to slaves. These were in turn shipped back to Britain. In 1636 Massachusetts assembly will pass a law called the Old satan deluder act; states in law that in order to prevent people from being diluted by satan they needed to have a good education( women, men, and kids) had to know how to read and write this was built into the cultural values of Massachusetts.

The religious orientation of the southern colonies were general protestants. This means that they followed or were members of any western churches that were disconnected from the Roman Catholic church. In this case, they followed the church of England. This helped with the joint-stock company.

Which leads to them traveling to the new world. Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany. He was a monk and a german theologian. He was apart of the protestant reformation; major up-reveal and destruction of the monolithic structure of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was a single structure. Martin Luther was trying to reform the church because of the corrupt teachings. He had written a document with a theses of 95 major flaws. Luther posted these at the church so that when people would go to church they would see this. In 1530 Luther was kicked out of the church and was in the process of gaining the political support of the princes of northern Germany. They were willing to support the great reform because they wanted church land(their goals are all spiritual). Luther comes up with a revolutionary idea that caused many problems. It was the personal interpretation of the Bible, they did not always use this. This means anyone could read it and interpret it as they saw fit. This would mean that if everyone interpreted it as they see fit then we wont just have one religion we have thousands of different religions. This is because we all have different ideas of what scripture means. Luther wanted to print this in the language of the people; latin. Many people could not read Latin. So people whoever read it, are able to interpret it however they’d like. Now here comes the problem, Henry the 8th was a devoted Roman Catholic and he writes a defense of the 7 sacraments on Luthers studies. King Henry had what he saw as a personal and political problem, his wife Catherine had not produced a male air. He did have a daughter, and there was no English law stopping a woman from being the monarch of England. Henry the 8th did not believe a woman could take on this task. Regardless, He fell in love with a queens lady Ann Bowlin and she promised him a son if they got married. So he asks for an annulment from the pope (makes the final decision). The pope denies and Henry goes to parliament and asks if they could pass a law to make him head of the church. In 1534 parliament passed a law making Henry head of the church. He later removes England under the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. This immediately makes the church of England a protestant church, it is also a state church. He persuaded parliament to do this by offering land from the Roman Catholic Church.

The puritans practiced the teachings of John Calvin. This is why they were often referred to as Calvinists and separationists. They believed that God is omnipotent meaning he possessed unlimited powers. They also believed in the idea of predestination; God knows whether you go to heaven or hell. The Bible was their source of right conduct. The puritans are morally equal, but they do have a ministry. The better the education the better the interpretation of the Bible. Calvinists subscribed to the church structure known as congregationalism this was an umbrella structure. Therefore they were also referred to as Congregationalists The term Congregationalists originally meant that each was an independent social structure, each had the right to call their own minister to establish meeting times, own church, rules, and regulations, and finally to investigate all those who wanted to convert to puritanism. The results of this are that puritans don't accept that all humans are going to heaven. They believe that only a select group had a probability of going. They felt that if you were a saint and read the Bible religiously while also following the teachings of the Bible then your chances of going to Heaven were greater.

By the 1750s all American colonies had a government structure consisting of a legislative, judicial, and executive branch. In England. A map of Virginia is an anecdotal source( narrated events or activities) and was written by Captain John Smith. He was an English soldier and mercenary. He could read, write, and acts as a cartographer. Smith decides to actively work with the Virginia company to colonize Jamestown. This was for profitable purposes. Smith was a prisoner when the ships got to Virginia but he was later released because they had found out that he was elected to be on the council. He stumbles upon what they called the Powhatan Confederacy. Led by Powhatan; leader of thousands of Indians in the Chesapeakes. The natives brought things for gifts and trade. Smith was a bit intimidated as the natives seemed like giants. This was because the English men were so short. They had an average height of five feet two inches. Smith recorded geographical features of the Chesapeake bay, but also cultural aspects, including 200+ Indian towns. Smith found many advantages such as bays that could be used as ports for ships( safe haven, protects them), fertile valleys for planting, rivers that were 20 tol miles away from each other and were used as a form of transportation to find trade and establish societies in Jamestown, and trees. Trees produced tar and Rosen which was used to build ships. This was important because England was in the process of building the most powerful, navy during this time. He saw possibilities in countries that his men don't see. The mostly male colonists weren’t prepared for the obstacles they were about to face ahead. John Smith explained that these men would rather starve than do the work. John Smith was determined to save this settlement. He made the promise that “ he who does not work, shall not eat”. Diseases and starvation took over the colonists. In the winter of 1609, the colonists encountered a tragic time known as the starving time. This was due to factors including the bad location of the uninhabited peninsula, the spoiled goods/ supplies that arrived in the ships from England and the supplies that would get lost at sea. Their relationships with the Indians went downhill from here. Smith was said to have navigated through Indian Diplomacy and was captured; sentenced to be executed, but Pocahontas the daughter of Powhatan interfered to save his life. Unfortunately due to a severe injury from burning gun powder, Smith goes back to England for medical care and never returns.

A Model of Christian Charity is an ideological source(based on religious ideas) and a sermon by John Winthrop. This sermon was given on the deck of the flagship Arbella in 1630. John Winthrop became the leader of the Massachusetts Bay colony due to king Charles 1st intolerance of puritanism. This caused the puritans to feel hostility towards the king and in turn, the king wanted nothing to do with the puritans. He was the governor of Massachusetts Bay for 20 years, studied law in England and is a lord of the manor (owned lots of lands). He was upper-middle class, a puritan minister, and a major leader of the puritan migration. For the first voyage of England, many puritans came in nuclear families. The puritans traveled to Massachusetts in hopes of creating a new community that allowed them a place where they could live by the Bible and practice their religion without getting discriminated against by the king. They believe in God and the idea that God didn’t make all people equal; that some people were meant to be above others. In the sermon, it discusses ways of how the puritans should treat each other. They should respect each other, help each other and remain united as a community; basically do what God wants them to do. They decided to make a covenant with God; that if the lord listens to them and brings them to the place they desire most (Heaven); in this case the new world then they will seal the agreement. If they fail to keep the promises of their “contract” and do not treat each other with the respect, remain loyal to the lord, and work as one man. Then the Lord will unleash his wrath upon them showing them what will happen if they break such a covenant. They reference making their community like a city upon a hill meaning that the eyes of the world would be upon them. They wanted to model a city of God and be an example of how all other communities should be run in order for their people and colonies to survive.

Robert Pond son of William Pond was one of the first puritans to settle at the Massachusetts Bay. He comes from England with his wife and two kids; one boy and a girl. This was considered a nuclear family group. Robert came for the freedom to practice his religion. The letter he writes to his mother and father is a product of the Great Puritan Migration of Massachusetts. He writes a letter from The Massachusetts Bay; an anecdotal source, to allow his parents to understand how it is living in New England. He begins to talk about how there aren’t many Indians because many of them died in the winter. He describes the Indian’s as crafty, impressive people. However, he feels concerned and threatened by them and this leads to his distrust in the Indians. He tells his parents that the countryside is hilly and rocky, the soil is very flat, the cows give little milk, and that the pigs give the best profit. He goes on to mention the good stores of timber, acorns(fed to pigs), and fish. He could not catch the fish because he didn't have a boat or any fishing lines get them. The good store of wild foul didn't do him any good because he couldn't shoot them. Puritans weren't good marksmen a lot of them were textile weavers and didn't need the skills necessary for hunting. He tells them about the diseases and all the deaths from scurvy and burning fevers also known as smallpox. Natives couldn’t survive smallpox but some English could. After explaining his unfortunate situation he asks his parents to send him over the cloth to make some clothing, butter, and malt because they drank nothing but water. He believes they will live if they are given these supplies from old England. He and his family lived, but 14 settlers died of smallpox on the ship that Robert Pond was on.

The fundamental cause of the American Revolution was due to the protection of economic rights. The British were attempting to have greater control over all of the colonies while gaining a profit for England. Mercantilism was the belief in the national economic self-sufficiency based on government restriction to achieve a favorable balance of trade. This means selling more than you are buying. Mercantilism is based on precedent. There is a limited amount of precious metal such as gold and silver. National power depends on acquiring as much as possible. If there was no gold found the American colonies would provide the British with raw materials like wood, fish, tobacco, sugarcane, the hemp used to make rope, and cotton (close to the revolution). The American colonies serve as markets for English merchandise (buy from England). They are expected to buy raw materials and manufactured goods. Money equals power. All goods sent to or from England must travel in English ships. The colonies had to buy enumerated goods from the British. Enumerated goods are specified goods such as paint, lead (used for ammunition), tea (got from India) that are numbered off must be sold to England. Madera a type of booze must be shipped on English ships or American colonial ships. Later there are many restrictions on commodities. For example, Americans wanted to make iron goods.