US History DBQ
Despite having the same settlement’s origin, the two areas on the east coast of North America, New England and Chesapeake, had developed into two distinct societies by 1700, whether regarding economy, religion, government, etc. There are various reasons accounting for this difference, some most important of which will be clarified in my essay. The strongest agent for the phenomenon is that the two regions were founded for different purposes. Although both were founded by the Englishmen, colonies in New England area were formed for religious reason, while Chesapeake was settled for economic one. For example, it was stated in A Model of Christian Charity, John Winthrop, 1630 that “the city upon the hill” of Massachusetts must be the model of God’s worthy servants, walk in the way of God and work in favor and support of his most holy and wise providence (Doc. A). On the other hand, Virginia of Chesapeake region was founded by and attracted mostly laborers and workers for solely trade and industrial purposes, especially gold mining (Doc. F). Additionally, take into account the contrast of the abundance of people migrating with their whole household to New England (Doc. B) with the overflowing amount of single, young-aged citizen of Brooklyn to Virginia looking for jobs (Doc. C). The difference in emigration adds to our understanding of the difference between the two regions’ population, which consequently attributed to their development direction. But population was not the only reason explaining why the two groups of colonies were so different from each other. Secondly, political, social and religious diversities, all of which will be discussed respectively, contributed to the difference in development of New England and Chesapeake. Politically, New England was much more democratic than Chesapeake. The promotion of small, compact towns and regular town meeting (as mentioned in Doc. D) led to the freedom of electing governments and ability to avoid aristocratism,