New England and the Chesapeake Colonies

When Jamestown was originally settled, and when the Mayflower landed, the colonists who emerged from the ships had huge plans and tremendous goals for what would come of their own colony. However, although both settled regions were the new homes to a majority of the English, two separate societies formed. In New England, the colonists were religious extremists hoping to form a perfect society, while gold hunters with little or no desire to create a permanent home flocked to the Chesapeake region. The colonists in the north were more concerned with family values than those in the south, whose society suffered from a great lack of women and such a high death rate that family ties were hard to keep. As time went by, the development of slavery and indentured servitude started making an autocracy of rich cash crop farmers in the Chesapeake region, while in New England continued to have a majority of small farmers, along with some fishermen and shipbuilders. The differences between the colonists' goals, populous, and economy caused New England and the Chesapeake region to form completely separate societies. When the Pilgrims landed in New England, they had no desire other than to create a community which could worship God in the way they saw fit, which was completely different than the desire of the Chesapeake settlers, who wanted gold. The New England colonies were established by religious groups with a strong belief in God and the ability to create a perfect society under Him. They marveled in their religious conviction which allowed them to travel to a completely foreign land, and were positive that, while following their belief system, they could create the perfect mixture of religion, politics, and justice (document A). The amount of effort which the colonists in New England tried to form the perfect society - their "city upon the hill - went to such an extent that the Articles of Agreement, written in Springfield, 1636, stated that "our town shall be