APUSH DBQ sample

The years 1607 and 1629 saw the start of two English colonies in the New World-first Jamestown and then the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Both were mainly populated by people of English origin, and yet the differences between the two colonies were significant and evident. As they evolved, the two colonies developed contrasting economies, societies, and institutions. These major differences can be traced to the varying motives for colorizations, the types of settlers, the geography and climate of the new world, and the different philosophies and views of the colonies. Both colonies, in setting themselves up, started to differ greatly as time went on the societies themselves started to go in opposite directions of each other. For example, in Virginia, the population was almost fully just single men who had no one to provide for and in return became highly unmotivated at doing their jobs (document B). At the other end though, in New England, the whole society was based off of families and circulated around life at home(document C). This made the gap between the two colonies even bigger as the Virginians, looking for women on their own, would often go and intermarry with the Indian women. Secondly, the climate and topography of each region was much different. The south, finding an easier time agriculturally due to nice weather and land, prospered and were able to become very successful in exporting big amounts of crops such as rice and tobacco. The north on the other hand was a lot more rocky and hilly and the weather was a lot more sporadic. This made it so that the North relied mainly on livestock and then crops more suited for harsher and colder temperatures such as pumpkins, corn, and apples. As it shows in Document D, Massachusetts made a covenant that bound them to believe in their God, to allot property convenient to all inhabitants and to share farmland against them. In the New England region, the community was much more communal than that of the Chesapeake region. As shown in Document F, many of the settlers came to the New World with the want for riches in mind making the morality of life there drop. The Chesapeake and New England regions vastly differed after they set up although they were consisting of the same race of people. This can be attributed to the lay of the land, the amount of English women in the societies, and the economies built on agriculture and hunting.