Chesapeake Region Dbq Analysis

A world full of opportunity and riches where anyone can have a good life. This is how the New World was viewed in England before it started to be colonized. It was with this mindset that many people quickly took off to this new land. Some looking for the gold of the new world but only finding hard work in its place(Doc 6) and others looking for what god has in store for them. Sailing across the large ocean over months everyone came from the same place, but ended up all over the continent. Leading to the formation of the New England and Chesapeake regions of the American colonies. However these colonies, though both founded by Englishmen turned out quite differently. The economic base, importance of slaves, and the reasoning behind the
This is where the entry of slaves in the colonies begins. The Chesapeake region was in fact the first place to have slaves in colonial America and in the end it was also the most heavily slave populated region in the colonies of mainland America. This was due to the harsh labor need to harvest the cash crop of the region, tobacco and the fact that slaves were much more inexpensive compared to other methods such as indentured servants who would be mostly young men looking for passage to the new world(Doc 3). In comparison, the New England region had relatively few slaves. This was because although they had farming, they didn’t have enough large scale agriculture to constitute the need of slaves as a labor force. This is not to note though that there were no slaves in the New England region, there was in fact quite a few in New York due to the influence of the previous Dutch inhabitants of the area. However still in comparison to the Chesapeake region New England had relatively few
The New England region of the colonies has a basis founded in religion. The first people to found a settlement in the New England region were the Puritans founding the town of Plymouth who came with their families(Doc 2) to basically transplant a portion of home in the new world. They came to the New World in search of religious freedom since they had only recently escaped persecution for their religion in England. This has lead to a strong sense of church which can be found if slightly not as strong in the rest of the colonies, but it also lead to a strong sense of community which in turn lead to the basis of religion being found in the actual reasoning behind the formation of their towns(Doc 4). These settlers came with the mindset that they were to create a “city upon a hill”(Doc 1). On the other hand the Chesapeake region of the colonies can find its basis in economic restitution. The first settlement of this region was formed by a joint stock company known as the Virginia Company. This colony called Jamestown was based solely on its profitability as a business venture. Unlike the original settlers of New England these people came in search of the riches of this New World, leading to the colonies reliance on cash crops to replace the riches not found in