Why Puritans Were Successful In New England

In my thesis, I contend that the Puritans were successful in New England because they came with family and members of their community, the New England terrain helped farmers across the colony produce enough material to sustain themselves and the ability to trade with England, and the New England colony saw more independence from Britain than other colonies. One of the reasons for the Puritans’ success in England is because they were able to bring family members to the colony and they ventured with members of their former community. The ability to bring family members to the colony meant that women could take a larger role in society while the most men were working on their farms. This colony differed from the Jamestown settlement which almost failed disastrously due to disease and the first settlers were …show more content…
Many of the men spent their days vainly searching for gold.” (ushistory.org, “Jamestown Settlement and the ‘Starving Time’"). This meant they were not as focused on farming which almost caused Jamestown to fail. Because New England based their settlement on farming, their town continued to prosper. According to nwhm.org, New England was a society that was “centered more on the self-sufficient family farm rather than the large tobacco plantations of the South.” (nwhm.org, “Women in New England Colonies”). Women in the New England colonies were taught at a young age that they should “maintain household order, encourage faith and moral development, and to be subordinate” and women maintained jobs as midwives and feme sole traders, which was the only business a woman could retain during the 18th century. (Eric Dunklee et al., “Gender Roles in Colonial America”). Men were expected “to have social power, to be educated, own property,