The New England and Chesapeake Colonies

Although New England and the Chesapeake regions were both settle largely by people of English origin, the two regions developed differently. Certainly they eventually evolved into similar modern societies. However in their early years, they were very different. Thus, by 1700, the New England and Chesapeake regions had developed into two separate and distinct societies due to differences in social structures, political structures, and economies.        ÂÂ

        The social structures of the two regions were very different, mainly in demographics and the incentives of the immigrants and religion. In the New England area, the early populations was mostly comprised of families with children and servants. This brought to the New World skilled craftsmen, farmers, and indentured servants to shape the economy. This also provided a relatively equal male to female ratio. They had longer life spans and less infant and childbirth related deaths. The incentives of the New England immigrants was to escape religious and political conflicts in England, thus shaping their religion.

The religion of the of the New England settlers was very Puritan. They wanted to establish themselves as a "city on a hill" or a place of morality and social reciprocity to serve as role model for the rest of the Americas. The Puritan communities were strong and tightly knit and the Puritan marriages were stable and most lasted until death. The religion of these settlers greatly influenced their politics; their form of government was a theocracy. The Chesapeake immigrants were many teenage boys and very few women. The women who did immigrate there had great choice in husbands. They married young, widowed, and usually remarried, carrying on the plantations of their late-husbands, resulting in greater economic freedom for women Most of the male immigrants were seeking gold in the New World and prone to fights from the...