Similarities And Differences Between New England And Southern Colonies

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Comparison of New England and Southern Colonies

British New World Colonies were established in different regions of the present day East Coast of North America, but the motives for establishment, social, political, and economic aspects couldn’t have varied more greatly. The different terrains of land and relationships with Britain seemed to set the colonies and their settlers more different than alike, but with their shared economic roots in agriculture, variant importance of religion, and “a distinctive identity as British colonists” the British New World Colonies unified as one (Roark, pg. 158).

The first New England Colony was established in 1620 with a group of Puritan separatists arriving in Plymouth. The Massachusetts Bay Company
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Covenant Communities banished or executed dissenters who were unwilling to follow Puritan rules. This resulted in the formation of Rhode Island by Roger Williams. Williams argued for separation of the church and state and was banished and formed Rhode Island for Massachusetts dissenters. Then followed Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dryer who argued against the “elect” that were chosen to have power in the community and a “free pass” into heaven by God Himself. Hutchinson was then also banished to Rhode Island in 1638. The “Half-Way Covenant” was established in 1662 that offered the second generation of colonists that were unwilling to convert a partial membership to the church. The second generation were able to baptize their children but couldn’t vote at church or participate in communion. King Philip’s War in 1676 between Natives and Puritans resulted in destruction of the Wampanoag Indians who were constantly harassed by the Puritans who also threatened their land. The Salem Witch trials of 1692 blamed social outcast and women of being witches, responsible for the mysterious death of a Reverend’s daughter. The hysteria claims the life and reputations of many and only stops when prominent members of society are accused. Religious fervour and fear of punishment …show more content…
Indentured Servitude was popular from 1607-1660, and was composed of young, healthy, and poor men primarily from England that were looking to make a life in the New World. These men would work 4-7 years on farms to be freed after their period of labour and would usually be given some clothes and food for their work, although some established homes and farming land in the “Backcountry” of colonies (Roark pg. 86). Slavery became popular in the 1660s with the immigration of Barbados settlers. Barbados was a British West Indies sugar colony primarily laboured by slaves and their wealthy British owners. C. 1663 many owners gained a charter to the New World specifically North and South Carolina and start coming in the 1690s, bringing their slaves with them. Sugar didn’t grow well in the terrain, so rice plantations sprung in South Carolina and Tobacco in North Carolina. Slaves were more popular than Indentured Servants since a slave’s life was typically longer than a term of labour by the Indentured Servant and slaves never had to be freed. The Carolinas soon held the largest slave population in all of the thirteen

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