In the 1600s, England’s two most prominent colonies in the Americas were busily evolving into disparate societies with different goals and social structures, even though the people who settled Massachusetts Bay, Virginia, and their surrounding colonies all emigrated from the same country. This difference in overall development occurred due to the contrasting motives of the colonists departing for New England and the Chesapeake. The people who would become New Englanders were motivated by the potential for a better life and the freedom to practice their religion which caused the formation of a peaceable and family-oriented culture. In comparison, the people who would populate the Chesapeake region embarked for it with the intention of becoming
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Massachusetts Bay itself was founded by Puritan refugees escaping persecution. While on board the ship that would take him there, Massachusetts Bay’s first governor, John Winthrop, who served in his position for 19 years, wrote to tell his future neighbors how the colony he would come to live in ought to behave. He famously stated that the inhabitants should act as if their colony were “a city on a hill” and behave piously for all to see (Document 1). Plymouth Colony, which neighbored and eventually became a part of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, was founded by radical Puritan separatists who believed the Church of England to be corrupt and chose to break with it by leaving England entirely. As their very incentive for leaving England was religious, these pilgrims also founded their new society around their …show more content…
Each ship that brought people to the colonies had a list of emigrants intended to keep track of each person on board the ship. The list of emigrants bound for New England in 1635 included many families made up of women, children, and older men, but the list of people bound for Virginia in the same year contained many young men, accompanied by only six young women (Documents 2 and 3). In New England, families were brought over because New Englanders expected to find a new home, which, from the start, created New England’s famously family-centered culture. However, in Virginia, all of the people brought over were young and the vast majority were men, which affirms that Virginia was not intended to have the permanence of New England and additionally exposing that the motivation of Virginians was work for profit. Men are far better laborers than women due to their increased strength, but an absence of women creates a colony that cannot grow, and therefore cannot
Massachusetts Bay itself was founded by Puritan refugees escaping persecution. While on board the ship that would take him there, Massachusetts Bay’s first governor, John Winthrop, who served in his position for 19 years, wrote to tell his future neighbors how the colony he would come to live in ought to behave. He famously stated that the inhabitants should act as if their colony were “a city on a hill” and behave piously for all to see (Document 1). Plymouth Colony, which neighbored and eventually became a part of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, was founded by radical Puritan separatists who believed the Church of England to be corrupt and chose to break with it by leaving England entirely. As their very incentive for leaving England was religious, these pilgrims also founded their new society around their …show more content…
Each ship that brought people to the colonies had a list of emigrants intended to keep track of each person on board the ship. The list of emigrants bound for New England in 1635 included many families made up of women, children, and older men, but the list of people bound for Virginia in the same year contained many young men, accompanied by only six young women (Documents 2 and 3). In New England, families were brought over because New Englanders expected to find a new home, which, from the start, created New England’s famously family-centered culture. However, in Virginia, all of the people brought over were young and the vast majority were men, which affirms that Virginia was not intended to have the permanence of New England and additionally exposing that the motivation of Virginians was work for profit. Men are far better laborers than women due to their increased strength, but an absence of women creates a colony that cannot grow, and therefore cannot