As England's population continued to grow in the 17th century, immigrants traveled to the Americas, securing their ownership to several West Indies islands. After claiming land, the colonies continued to develop between 1607 and 1754. The English headed north and the New England colonies were developed in 1608 including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. While the settlers focused on recreating their society with their own religious beliefs, another goal was to seek economic opportunity, and sometimes the development varied with the of southern colonies.
Looking for religious freedom, a group known as the Puritans left England. The first Puritan separatists who arrived in the New England colonies fled to Holland in 1608 in order escape the religious abuse in England. Believing in a pure Christian church with no trace of Catholic worship, Puritans developed a strict religion. “Church attendance was mandatory”, and for those keeping from the God’s work they felt they were
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As the English settled in Jamestown for money, they later had the desire to make money of the economic characteristics. Subsistence farming, shipbuilding, and lots of trade with the West Indies took place. These economic activities were determined by the environment. Heading North, the landscape and climate impacted the economic activities of this colony and it became hard for the Puritans to farm and grow crops. Due to poor soil, wheat was difficult to farm so corn, pumpkins, rye, squash and beans were all planted instead (Landofthebrave, New England colonies). Settlers in the New England colonies were involved with buying and selling goods allowing ship holders to flourish (ThoughtCo, Characteristics of New England Colonies). Along the coast of the New England colonies, Puritans mainly focused on town life industries such as fishing and
Puritanism was a religious reform movement that wished to purify the Church of England of the remnants of the Roman Catholic faith. The Puritans were persecuted by many denominations across Europe and around 1620, King James I, a member of the Church of England, began oppressing the Puritan community as well. This led the Puritans to flee England and come to the New World where in the words of John Winthrop they were to build a “city upon a hill”. The Puritans settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colonies, more specifically just north of Boston. The most prominent members of this time were John Winthrop.
The Massachusetts Bay colonists were Puritans seeking religious freedom and purity. After being persecuted for their beliefs in England, they moved to Holland. Before long, parents felt their children were being influenced by the more liberal beliefs of Holland. The next option was to move to the New World where they could raise their children in a private community surrounded by like-minded families. As Puritan lawyer John Winthrop envisioned the new colony he said, “Wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us.”
The Puritans believed that idleness was a sin; more specifically, the blatant waste of time and lack of any substantive achievement was, in a word, useless. Thus, the very economic culture of the New England colonies was impacted. The abundant supply of timber and the importance of fishing in place of agriculture guaranteed that timber and fishing were the most treasured and valued products from the New England colonies. Since the Puritans thought that their wealth indicated that they had won God’s favor, the Puritan merchants worked relentlessly to ensure that that part of Boston became a commercial center in New England so that they would be valid players in the economic scene of the New World. Nevertheless, unlike the Chesapeake colonies, New England did not evolve as a region that was focused on economic activity because it was founded as “a plantation of religion” (Doc J), as opposed to a center for “worldly trade.”
Ever science the 1629 people have been setting out to come to America. However just because many people came together to live in one place doesn’t mean they lived the same. In fact New England and the southern colonies lived much differently from each other. Even though they might not be many differences does not mean they are very different.
The Traits of the New England Colonies Have you ever wondered what made the New England colonies thrive? Maybe it was war or maybe it was the economics and politics that got these colonies through some hard times. “The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government,”-George Washington. This quote by George Washington explains the basics of our government and our country. I believe that economics, politics and trade help the New England Colonies through the early stages of it’s growth.
New England Culture I. In 1620 the Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed on Cape Cod. Later, they settled in Provincetown. In 1614, Captain John Smith called this region New England. The states that occupy New England are, Main, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
On the other hand, there were fewer diseases since the cold climate killed many of the germs. Although the weather and soil made it hard for the Puritans to farm, people could still grow some crops such as pumpkins and corn. Additionally, colonists also fished for food. However, in the Middle Colonies, there were many hills and flat lands.
New England was a colony that was settled because the people that came from England wanted to find their freedom from their country. The people that came to the United States was to find freedom through religion, which the people from Mother England were not given the freedom to pursue their religious believes. The first settlement in New England was when John Winthrop came to the United States. In this settlement came the founders of the colony of New England. Basically the people from the first settlement were the ones that set up the way that the people were going to live and the type of government that they were going to establish and follow.
They wanted to create pure, moral Christian society based on moral living. By hard working, integration of religion in politics, and social development of certain lifestyle practices, Puritans had a large influence on the development of the New England colonies from 1630s through the 1660s. Puritans believed in hard work as the pathway of success since they thought they were favored by God to succeed (Doc I). They tried to shun idleness and believed that being lazy is not profitable (Doc C).
William Bradford and Religion in Of Plymouth Plantation Of Plymouth Plantation is the primary work of William Bradford. This is the history of the Puritans, even more so the Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock. Bradford’s account of what is often considered the first book of American History. Yet there have been some criticism about the accounts that Bradford describes in his history of the Puritans and whether it was sided to sympathize with the Puritans and show the horridness of the Indians. John K. Wilson describes William Bradford as celebrating the Pequot massacre in Of Plymouth Plantation, he cites this paragraph from the book: “Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the monarchy began to expand their power and influence, eventually becoming absolute rulers. Having support from the merchant class, the monarchy attempted to unify and stabilize the nation states. In the late seventeenth, early eighteenth centuries, with hopes of expanding English trade and acquiring a broader market for English manufactured goods, the nation states were wealthy enough to fund voyages of discovery and exploration. Over time, ten colonies were established along the Atlantic coast of North America. The first permanent English settlement was established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and in 1620 a ship landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking it as the second permanent English settlement.
In the south, the warm, humid climate and southern, fertile soil allowed colonists to grow sugar cane, rice, as cash crops. The south was able to grow many crops and foods the middle colonies, northern colonies, and even many European countries could not produce. Even though large farming fields were a typical setting in the south, slave plantations quickly dominated the southern economy. “Profit-hungry settlers often planted tobacco to sell before they planted corn to eat” (Kennedy, 61). This quote and the 40 million pounds of tobacco annually exported during the 1630’s exemplified the desire and economic opportunity the south possessed.
This was mostly because of the conflicts between the Jamestown settlers and the Indians. There was also a need to help the planters because of the
In the 17th centuries early settlers came to America in the hope of taking their custom and traditions forward. However, the environment and geography brought changes to their lifestyles. Soon, people became to alter their pattern of living in the different colonies. During the 17th and 18th centuries, geography and the environment profoundly influenced the economic development and overall health and success of the two regions called the Chesapeake and the New England, which began to form in the early 17th century.
The New England colonies changed a lot between the 1630’s and the 1660’s between economic, political, and social views. Politically, the colonies went from a democracy that was limited to church members to a more open democracy that included men and women, church members and non-church members. Economically, the colonies went from believing that wealth was a sin to accepting capitalism and private profit. Socially, the colonies originally believed that they could purify the church and create a Utopian society, whereas eventually some colonies were free to believe in any religion they wanted to. Though there were plenty of things that changed in the New England colonies, many things also stayed the same.