Kerry Lewis September 18, 2010

DBQ AP US History

Although English settlers developed both the New England and the Chesapeake

Bay areas, by 1700 they had grown apart into recognizably different societies. These

differences were caused by a variety of reasons, including people who settled there, and

their goals and motives for moving to the New World. The differences that existed

between the two areas were what made the New England Colonies more stable in many

ways compared to the Chesapeake bay settlers.

There are many different elements of any given society which make it stable, or

not. One of these elements is the marital status of its inhabitants. When a society is made

up of families, there is a greater sense of responsibility and accountability, since the

people cannot do anything rash without having to worry about the effect that it will have

on their families. Also, the prescence of children in a society means that it will continue,

as there will be people living there after their predecessors have died, having children to

do the same in the future. In other words, the society will not die with those who

established it. As is shown in document B, the large majority of people emigrating from

England to Massachusetts, in New England, were emigrating along with their families.

This provides a much more stable basis for a society than exists in Virginia, or the

Chesapeake Bay region, which is shown in Document C to have more than three times

the number of men emigrating there than women. This also causes the men to compete

for the women who are there, turning them against each other and creating ill feelings and

resentment between colonists.

 These ill feelings were not at all soothed by the main reason that people chose to

emigrate to the Chesapeake bay region. As stated in Document F, addressing the

colonists headed to Virginia, “The worst [among us were the gold seekers who] with their

golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompenses. There was no talk . . .

but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold . . .” This shows how many of those going

to the Chesapeake Bay area were motivated by greed: they wanted to become rich, and

they saw better opportunity to do so in the New World, rather than back in England. And

what’s more, many achieved this goal, though not through gold as they expected.

Virginia, and other surrounding areas became largely agricultural colonies, growing and

shipping cash crops such as tobacco, corn and indigo for large profit. The owners of the

plantations where these crops were grown consequently became very rich, while those

working for them did not. This caused a large gap between the rich and the poor in this

area. Contrastingly, in New England equality, not individual wealth was the main goal.

Document D, a section of 1636 Springfield Massachusetts’ Articles of Agreement shows

the striving for equality that occurred in this area, with goals to give the forty families

(families with a range of wealth) an area for their home that fits their income, and that

each family will have an area for planting. This shows that while the families in this New

England town will not all be equal in terms of wealth, they will all have a place for their

home and their food, as opposed to those further south who sometimes even when any

debt owed to the plantation owner was paid, could not afford land, and so still had to live

off of the plantation. Also showing how New England colonies looked more toward a

strong society is Document E, which speaks about efforts in Connecticut to encourage

people (particularly traders and merchants) to accept a moderate profit and income so that
their neighbors will not become poor, and the society will continue to thrive. This focus

on keeping the town stable is in direct contrast to the individualistic behavior of the

Chesapeake area settlers. Also, while those going to the Chesapeake region did tend to be

going for the sake of wealth, often those headed to New England had a higher purpose.

As shown in Document 1, the thoughts of John Winthrop on his way to the New World,

he and those he was with were going to the America’s in the name of God, and if they did

not make the settlement work it would be seen, both to them and to those watching their

progress, that they have shamed “the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause

their prayers to be turned into curses upon us [the settlers]” The fear of this is another

reason that they banded together, always thinking of their “community as members of the

same body,” despite differences in wealth.

Although unity is important to a society, there are those who say that the

individual drive to achieve more is what brings growth to a community. While it is true

that in order for society to expand and grow there need to be individuals who keep trying,

and yearning for more, it is even more important that they are not doing so for

themselves, but rather for the society as a whole. This is not what was occurring in the

Chesapeake area. In the Chesapeake area the people were out for themselves, not their

colonies, and so even if there was growth occurring, it was not nearly as substantial in the

end as what occurred in the New England colonies, because in New England it was the

societies which expanded, not the wealth and territory of a single person.

In conclusion, it is these differences in goals and motives which separated the

New England settlers from the Chesapeake settlers. Those in New England were unified

in so many more ways than those in the Chesapeake area that they continued to expand as
a whole, in a way that most everyone was happy, while those in the Chesapeake area

reached out only individually, oppressing most while only a select few prospered over the

rest—a recipe for future rebellion.