Similarities And Differences Between The New England And Southern Colonies

The New England colonies vs. the Chesapeake colonies had many differences in there economical make-up, as far as their economic activities and the diversity of the economies. The New England society had a very diverse economy as far as their activities go. Some economic activities included small farms, livestock,

Each region developed distinctly because of the difference in climate and terrain. In New England, there was mostly rocky terrain and cold temperatures. During the frost, the mosquitoes, carriers of fatal diseases like malaria, disappeared. Thus, the number of deaths caused by illnesses was less compared to those in the Chesapeake region. However, due to its infertile land, the colony struggled to find a sustainable cash crop. Because settlers came by ship, New England colonies were primarily on the coast, resulting in their economy being dependent on the ocean and resorting to sending “fish, foodstuffs, timber, and horses” to foreign ports. (Narrative p. 23)

The three colonies all wanted to make money but they had to go about it in different ways. This was mainly due to what they had available. The New England Colonies were mainly agricultural farmers. With all the water reservoirs like Cape Cod there were plenty of fish so lots of people became fishermen. There were a lot of lumberjacks to cut down trees and export them to England. The Middle Colonies were extremely different because they set up extensive cosmopolitan cities reminiscent of New York. They had many specialists like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. They traded a lot with in North America and occasionally overseas. The Southern Colonies primarily depended on cotton and tobacco plantations. As the plantations grew they had to employ black slaves. The plantations were fully self contained with their own blacksmith, teachers and professionals. So there were no big cities or towns. The main plantations traded directly with Europe via the Mississippi. The three colonies all made money differently with their diverse professions and traders.

British North America by the mid 1700’s consisted of three major regions. The New England region included the colonies of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Middle Region included the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The Southern Region, also known as the Chesapeake Colonies, included the Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Although all three regions consisted of British colonies, each region differed in terms of climate, geography, population, politics, economy, and religious attitudes. Daily life was very different for the people who lived in each of these

Both the New England colonies and the Southern colonies seemed as though they might be the same. They both started out with the majority of people being from England, they were both in the New World, and they were both ruled by England but, as time went on this theory was proven wrong. The New England colonies and the Southern colonies had many common characteristics but these two regions were very different geographically, politically, and socially.

the New England colony’s attributes. The Southern Colonies were the Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, Virginia and Province of Georgia. The Southern colonies were developed for freedom of economic opportunity.Their economy was supported by plantations, mostly run by slaves. The South would focus more on massive slaves work to grow tobacco and rice that they would sell to England. The southern colonies had goals for mercantilism, and increasing the prosperity of England. They also had a government based on a royal government, where the state was governed by a

The colonies of the south and the New England had one similarity; there relationship with the natives. Both of the colonies had very bad relations with the natives. The south needed the native land for tobacco plantations, which caused a lot of conflict between the two groups. The conflict escalated to the point where the southerners gave the natives blankets infected with the smallpox virus. This virus killed off almost the whole native because they weren’t very well suited to fight the disease.

The article, “Economy in Colonial New England” talks about the economy in the New England colony, it says “In contrast to the southern colonies, which could produce tobacco, rice, and indigo in exchange for imports, New England's colonies couldn't offer much to England beyond fish, furs, and naval stores.” The New England colonies used the fishing and the construction of boats to maintain economically. They made soap, clothing and candles. Its exports fish, whale products, boats, wood products, furs, maple syrup, copper, horses, beer and whiskey. They had problems with agriculture, it was difficult to plant wheat because the quality of nutrients on the land was poor, but corn, pumpkins, rye and beans had better

Therefore, because life expectancy was longer than that of the South enabling the growth of large families. Adults and children alike were expected to work, slave labor was not needed on the small farms in New England. Each family farmed enough to provide for their family. When indentured servants did come over to New England, they found that land was very dear. Those wanting to work in exchange for land found that they needed to go further south. Consequently, New England had the least ethnically mixed population of all the regions. The need for extensive travel was limited in the North. The reason for this was because the rivers were short and hard to negotiate. Therefore transportation by means of water was extremely difficult. The colonists found it proved to be more economical to settle close to one another. The northerners did make an effort to enrich their lifestyle by clearing forests for livestock .However this proved to be detrimental as the impact of cattle and other livestock over grazed the land which lead to extensive erosion and flooding. One positive aspect the resulted from the clearing of the land was the realization of the voluminous amounts of lumber that could be used for shipbuilding and exportation.

To look into the economic status for both colonies, they had more differences than similarities. The South had large farms and plantations, on the other hand, north had small farms and few plantations. North had more raw materials to trade than the South, but as mentioned the South had larger farms and work areas. The North colonies mostly traded cotton, they were very popular about their cotton. So, the South was agriculture more than the North. Northern focused on farming, fishing, and trade with the Atlantic's (Lecture, Economies of Early British Colonies). People in North were mostly focused on building communities, because they traveled and came into North as families, unlike the South who were mainly focused on agriculture for export

* They used slaves for exports and labor; New England didn’t need labor like the South for agriculture.

The economy of the two regions also greatly differed because of the terrain that they landed on. Because the land in the south was much more fertile than in the north, the southern colonies thrived in rice and tobacco, profiting greatly. In New England the settlers could not grow anything in the rocky terrain and were forced into fishing, building, and farming. However, not much farming went on because of the infertile soil. In the Chesapeake slaves were also a main part of their economy. The slave trade made them very wealthy because of their closeness to the West Indies. They would be shipped many slaves and then use them to harvest their crops and plant their land. Soon, the slaves outnumbered white settlers by about four to one.

The Chesapeake and New England colonies, although clearly quite different, do boast some similarities. The two colonies were founded in the early 17th century and started off with a demographic that primarily consisted of young white European men. The differences between the colonies are easier to pinpoint. The New England colony, which is located in the North, has long winters and short growing seasons. This is contrary to the Chesapeake colony which is more to the South than the New England colony. The Chesapeake colony was known for its fertile land, long growing season, and large swaths of land that were perfect or farming. These geographical differences directly impacted the economies as these two distinct colonies developed. The New England colonies focused on fishing, shipbuilding, and growing a distinct class of

In the southern and New England's regions there were different settlements. This also means the geography is different. In Document 6 we learned about the geography in the south regions. In there plantation they grew tobacco and corn near the James River in Virginia. The James River helped the colonist with a source of water trade, irrigation and travel. In the south the House was apart from everything else. There was very minimum towns and no cities. The south hired slaves so that they could help with the crops and plantation, large farm. Some outside information is that they have a long growing season, that's another reason they need slaves. The weather was warm in the summer and mild in the winter and also a short winter. The New England region was different from the southern region. They had a short growing

Although they settled on the same coast, due to vastly different geographys, the North became commercial while the South focused on agriculture. A warmer climate meant tobacco flourished in southern colonies. Because of this, the South was able to exploit the tobacco industry making it a very valuable cash crop. However, in the North, poorer soil and a colder climate made growing crops much more difficult. As a result, northern colonies quickly realized they needed to trade natural resources, contrary to the southern colonies crops. A woodsier geography in the North meant great trading of lumber. Exceeding amounts of lumber meant a lot of ships were made, causing the North to thrive on a commercial economy. In the South, rivers allowed for easy shipment of crops. This meant southern colonies could thrive on selling crops back to their European states, making them flourish with an agricultural economy.