The New England Massachusetts Bay colonies and Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay were two very different colonies; founded on different principles, and developed by different classes of people. In Virginia women were dying in their thirties and men were dying in their thirties and forties; however, in New England men were living to their sixties and seventies With their wives also living to an old age ("English Settlement"). This fact alone is a testament to the difference in quality of life that each colony possessed.
The first attempt at colonization in Virginia was almost a complete failure. It began when three ships sailed to America, carrying 104 Englishmen. As employees of the London Company, their task was to seek out gold and other riches; “English America began as a business proposition” (English Settlement”). However, the small inlet they landed on, Jamestown, turned out to be nothing short of a death sentence. With an outbreak of typhoid, dysentery, and sea salt poisoning caused by a mixture of seawater and saltwater along with mosquito infested water, all but 60 men died (“English Settlement”). Although Englishmen and women initially came to Virginia to find gold, they “quickly discovered that growing tobacco was the only sure means of making money (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.73). In the beginning, Virginia was a “god-awful place. Drink and sleep were the only breaks from work,” this led to the hard and short-lived lives of the colonists (“English Settlement”).
The colonists in the Virginia colony began exporting tobacco to England. Their new cash crop of tobacco made the colonists a profit, but it also saved their colony from failing. In order to make profit from tobacco, men had to own land for the tobacco to grow and labor to work the land. Growing tobacco “proved to be very labor-intensive” and required a lot of steady tending (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.75). With a shortage of settlers willing to come to Virginia, they eventually turned to slave labor for their tobacco fields (“English Settlement”). Their slave labor came in the form of indentured servants. Indentured servants were generally “young, impoverished, and often illiterate Englishmen” who signed labor contracts between five and seven years, in the hopes of having freedom after their time spent as servants; and a new and better life in America (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.76). Unfortunately the life of servitude was harsh; service times were lengthened at will for slight grievances, female indentured servants were regularly exploited, impregnated and sold to other tobacco planters. Many did not survive their servitude, “disease and brutally harsh treatment, 40% of the servants would not survive their term of service” (“English Settlement).
Eventually tired of their living circumstances, and believing the government was “impeding their access to land and wealth” since the government refused to remove the Indians from the lands, white and black servants alike staged a massive rebellion--Bacon’s Rebellion (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.78). After the rebellion, in which Susquehannock indians were attacked and the city of Virginia burned, King Charles II sent royal troops to gather the colony back in control. However, the damage of the rebellion had already been done, and the fear of another rebellion loomed in the minds of the colonists. Thus, indentured servitude was completely dissolved and replaced with black slavery alone--to keep black and white servants from forming another uprising. With this, race based slavery was born in Virginia (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.78).
Unlike the Virginians who traveled to America in search of riches, the colonists who settled in New England did so to fulfil their dreams of a “new English Israel where reformed Protestantism would grow and thrive”(OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.73). The colonists who came to New England consisted of families and children, not just men like in Virginia.
Most everything in the New England colony focused around their faith and religion, so much that their towns were built focused on the church. The men and women that settled in New England called themselves Puritans. They were “radical Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England” remove all traces of Catholicism from their faith (“English Settlement”). In fact, many Puritans fled to New England in order to avoid religious persecution from the Church of England who considered “Puritan ministers and their followers as outlaws” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.74). The conflict between Puritans and King James I escalated to the point that Puritan ministers were no longer allowed to openly preach because the King considered them a national security threat that sought to “undermine the king's authority” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.80).
However, the men who led the Puritans to America were educated ministers who had studied at prestigious colleges such as Oxford and Cambridge, so they believed their questioning of the Church of England was completely valid. The first governor, and founder, of Massachusetts Bay was John Winthrop, who himself was a “Cambridge-educated lawyer and landholder” (English Settlement). Winthrop believed the chaos of the Virginia colony needed to be avoided at all costs, and believed the downfall of the Virginia colony was due to a lack of discipline, “along with a lust for immediate profits” (“English Settlement”).
A lack of discipline is not something that the Massachusetts Bay colonies lacked. From the moment they signed the Mayflower Compact, which was more religious in nature than an economic pact, the Puritans sought to make their way through their own hard work and dedication. This work ethic created “different labor systems [which] distinguished early Puritan New England from the Chesapeake colonies” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.81). Although New England colonies also grew tobacco, they had different means of maintaining their crops. Where the Virginia colonies relied on indentured servitude and slavery, the Puritans depended upon their own hard work; from everyone in their families, including children. They were not keen to open their towns to outsiders and prided themselves on their own “disciplined homegrown workforce” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.82).
Although things seemed smooth on the outside of Puritan life one woman in particular, Anne Hutchinson, called into question the teachings of the Puritan ministers teachings of a “covenant of works” and instead favored a “covenant of grace” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.83). Anne held prayer meetings for women in her home where she publicly “denounced the ministers for leading people to believe that they could earn God's grace by good works” (“English Settlement”).
This was seen as a direct challenge to the minister's’ authority, “by making religion a deeply personal experience, Hutchinson gave power to lay people, women as well as men, at the expense of ministers (“English Settlement”). With these revelations along with her own “claim of direct religious revelation” she was promptly brought to trial (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.83). Although she handled herself eloquently during her trial, despite being heavily pregnant and forced to stand, she was banished from the colony. She later became the victim of an Indian attack, to which Governor Winthrop stated he believed it was further proof of her heresy.
“English Settlement.” Films On Demand - Embedded Video - English Settlement: Episode 2-A Biography of America, A Biography of America, www.learner.org/series/biographyofamerica/prog02/transcript/index.html.
OpenStax. “U.S. History.” OpenStax CNX, U.S History, OpenStax, 2014, cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@3.84:gMXC1GEM@3.
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| Jamestown |
Unlike the Virginians who traveled to America in search of riches, the colonists who settled in New England did so to fulfil their dreams of a “new English Israel where reformed Protestantism would grow and thrive”(OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.73). The colonists who came to New England consisted of families and children, not just men like in Virginia.
However, the men who led the Puritans to America were educated ministers who had studied at prestigious colleges such as Oxford and Cambridge, so they believed their questioning of the Church of England was completely valid. The first governor, and founder, of Massachusetts Bay was John Winthrop, who himself was a “Cambridge-educated lawyer and landholder” (English Settlement). Winthrop believed the chaos of the Virginia colony needed to be avoided at all costs, and believed the downfall of the Virginia colony was due to a lack of discipline, “along with a lust for immediate profits” (“English Settlement”).
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| John Winthrop |
Although things seemed smooth on the outside of Puritan life one woman in particular, Anne Hutchinson, called into question the teachings of the Puritan ministers teachings of a “covenant of works” and instead favored a “covenant of grace” (OpenStax, Chapter 3, p.83). Anne held prayer meetings for women in her home where she publicly “denounced the ministers for leading people to believe that they could earn God's grace by good works” (“English Settlement”).
Works Cited
“English Settlement.” Films On Demand - Embedded Video - English Settlement: Episode 2-A Biography of America, A Biography of America, www.learner.org/series/biographyofamerica/prog02/transcript/index.html.
OpenStax. “U.S. History.” OpenStax CNX, U.S History, OpenStax, 2014, cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@3.84:gMXC1GEM@3.
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