Comparing the settlement patterns of the Chesapeake and New England colonies illustrates the contrast between their ideas, motivation, and origin. The differences between the Chesapeake and New England colonies are believed to be the source of the core distinctions between the mentality of the North and the South of the United States (Corbett et al.,2020). The differences originate from the domestic religious opposition of the Puritan church and the Church of England, which was translated to the core differences in the settlements’ patterns.
As the Chesapeake colonies were settled by predominantly young and unmarried followers of the Church of England, their main source of motivation was the commercial purpose. The settlers of Chesapeake colonies Virginia and Maryland were hoping to find gold or silver mines but eventually realized that growing tobacco was their only financial opportunity. At that time, tobacco was believed to possess medicinal virtues, which supported its widespread use (Sanchez-Ramos, 2020).
In the continuous attempts to find gold or silver, the settlers of Chesapeake colonies Virginia and Maryland dismissed their need to provide themselves with the source of food and struggled for the first few years. The export of tobacco involved many stages of processing which required significant labor power. The migrants who completed the indenture contracts were given fifty acres to plant tobacco and welcomed the family members with additional acres. The measure fostered the motivation for young and low-income families to come to the New World of opportunities.
On the other hand, The New England colonies carried a more religious approach to development, and their population mostly consisted of families with children. The new World for the New England settlers presented an opportunity to practice their own religious terms. The New England colonies utilized a different approach to labor from the Chesapeake colonies and protected their workforce from outsiders, prioritizing the stable source of income for the local population. Thus, the local issues between the Puritan perception and the Church of England determined the core differences between the settlement patterns of the New World’s colonies and influenced their priorities and motivations.
References
Corbett, P. S., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T. J., & Vickery, P. S. (2020). U.S. History. OpenStax College, Rice University.
Sanchez-Ramos, J. R. (2020). The rise and fall of tobacco as a botanical medicine. Journal of Herbal Medicine, 22, 1-7. Web.