Chesapeake Vs New England

Early America was the site of two very different colonial experiments in early 17th century Chesapeake and New England. This difference was particularly true of the inhabitants of each colony who would imagine, invent and respond to political authority in very different ways. Both colony’s political structure would emerge as a consequence of its founding ethos, the character of its peoples, and the internal and external pressures it faced. Chesapeake political authority was constructed according to the colony’s mercantile and imperial origins and would only change when its economic viability was threatened by internal violence and socio-demographic collapse. In contrast, New English political authority was founded on the basis of Puritan …show more content…
The New English settlers were Puritans who sought to ‘purify’ the Church of England from papal excess. However, in the face of Stuart despotism and traditional Anglicans, they were forced to look abroad to construct a ‘purified’ society. This resulted in the establishment of the Plymouth colony in 1620 and Massachusetts Bay in 1630. The commercialism of New England was a result of their “special zeal to honor their God and to seek rewards that offered reassurance that God approved of their efforts.” It was this belief in a ‘godly’ purpose that shaped their political authority. This can be seen in the most famous sermon given by John Winthrop, a gentry lawyer and governor of Massachusetts Bay, A Modell of Christian Charity. Winthrop stressed religious and sociopolitical communalism and unity. Winthrop emphasizes, “God Almighty in his…holy and wise providence disposed…[that] some must be rich, some poore, some high and eminent…others…in submission…everyman… have need of others…and from hence they might be all knit…[thus] care of the publique must oversway all private respects.” Winthrop and the settlers of Massachusetts Bay acknowledged that their society was economically diverse and saw a hierarchical sociopolitical order as a natural part of creating and maintaining proper order. Most importantly, Winthrop explained the purpose of political authority as a means to ensure that they succeeded …show more content…
This was much more practicable than a similar strategy would have been in the Chesapeake due to ubiquitous Puritanism and presence of families, with a reliance on strong patriarchs, rather than solely competing individuals. In addition, they thought their religious and social order was a form of freedom, specifically civil and moral liberty, the freedom to live a righteous and proper life. This dynamic resulted in a political authority that was vastly different than either England or its sister colony; the New English “enjoyed less collective power…because…autonomous towns dispersed political power.” Equally, New England had a “decentralized and…responsive form of government in the English empire…a hotbed of ‘republicanism’…except for rhetorical allegiance there was no king.” This ‘puritan republicanism’ became the fundamental standard for political authority in New England. The Body of Liberties of the Massachusetts collonie in New England (1641) stands as a clear example of this; “we hould it therefore our dutie and safetie whilst we are about the further establishing of this Government to collect and expresse all such freedomes as for present we foresee may concerne us, and our posteritie after us…no mans life shall be taken