Unlike the Chesapeake settlers who established a colony for predominantly economic reasons, the New England settlers were focused on the holding and developing their traditions, family values, religious values and work ethics. According to the existing accounts of history, a majority of the settlers in the New England colony were puritans, who were committed to ensuring that their traditional and religious beliefs united all the colonists for the sake of the growth of the colony¹. Unlike the Chesapeake colonists who focused on individual interests, the New England people held the belief that they should work as one people, led by one God, whom they obeyed and consulted. They held that all the people in the colony should work for the interests of one another, and also for the growth of the colony. This was unlike, the Chesapeake colony, where families were not held in high regard². It is emphasized that religion was a number one guiding pillar for the prosperity of the colony.

1. John Faragher, Daniel Cztrom, Mahri Buhle and Susan Armitage, Out of Many: A history of American People, Volume 1 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational Inc., 2012), 57.
2. 56.

The New England colonists had a very high regard for their families. Faragher et al. records that the New England settlers moved in voyages and brought their entire families with them³. While the families in the New England colony consisted of the poor and the rich, the Chesapeake colony had the poor participate in slavery and servant hood for the benefit of the rich. While in the Chesapeake colony there were slaves and masters, and the slaves working for the masters, the policy in the New England colony was that every person own a portion of the plantation. Oppression for the other people with an agenda of enriching oneself was totally prohibited in the New England colony, unlike the Chesapeake colony where the poor servants and the slaves earned a similar treatment as they worked for their masters. While the Chesapeake colonists viewed the slaves and the servants as a source of cheap labor, the New England colonists advocated for the poor being given a chance to work for themselves and develop their own lives.

The reasons for the occupation of the two colonies were also different. Faragher et al. posits that the Chesapeake colony consisted of young people, very few women, and families didn’t exist in the colony⁴. The interests of the Chesapeake colonists were economic development and money, unlike the New England colonists who were in the search of a place to settle with their families. Their interests were far away from seeing the colony prosper. Instead, they were hungry for gold and riches, and in this way, they didn’t have time for families. Since most of the settlers in the Chesapeake colony came from the royal, aristocratic classes of England, they were not ready to work for their prosperity.

3. John Faragher, Daniel Cztrom, Mahri Buhle and Susan Armitage, Out of Many: A history of American People, Volume 1 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational Inc., 2012), 59.
4. 53.

They only relied on labor from the slaves and the poor. Instances of starvation were predominant in the Chesapeake colony due to a large influx of the English, who were not determined to defend their course by working hard. Instead, they resulted to cannibalism and wars with the Indians.

The accounts of the two regions, Chesapeake and New England were totally different. The Chesapeake folks survived and got rich from the labor of the slaves and the poor. Faragher et al. records that the Chesapeake colony has maintained a history of the question of land and labor. While the tobacco plantations required a lot of hand labor, the sons of the aristocrats were not ready to work⁵. My opinion, thus, based on these accounts of the two colonies, the Chesapeake folks did not deserve to survive. They should be despised for surviving through the sweat of the slaves and the poor. The New England experience was so much different from the Chesapeake experience because of the strong religious and social beliefs and practices that the colonists o the New England held.

In sum, the Chesapeake and New England colonies were occupied by people with different reasons, beliefs and attitudes. The regions were also different in terms of climate, and plantations. The New England people valued empire prosperity and family progress. However, the Chesapeake folks survived through exploitation of the slave and servants labor. The beliefs, interests and attitudes of the colonists were the reasons at the center of the disparities.

5. John Faragher, Daniel Cztrom, Mahri Buhle and Susan Armitage, Out of Many: A history of American People, Volume 1 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational Inc., 2012), 53.

Bibliography

Faragher, John, CztromDaniel, BuhleMahri and ArmitageSusan.Out of Many: A history of American People, Volume 1. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational Inc., 2012.