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Chesapeake Colonies Dbq Analysis

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Some may think that both the New England and Chesapeake regions both were alike, since they were settled by the English. Then they would be wrong. By the 1700’s the two regions were here. The Jamestown colony was lead here to settle by John Smith, while the Mass Bay colony was settled by John Cotton and John Winthrop. The Mass Bay colony was inside the New England region while the Chesapeake area was inside the Jamestown colony. These two regions developed into two unique societies because of their priorities, climate, growing seasons, and the interactions with the Natives in their region. They both differ because in New England they mostly settled for the freedom of their religion, while in Chesapeake they wanted all the profit possible from …show more content…

In the Chesapeake region they would have longer and warmer growing seasons since they geographically are closer to the equator than New England, which had shorter and colder growing seasons. From the result of the growing season in Chesapeake, therefore they have a better opportunity to grow crops like tobacco to earn profits especially when they grew large farms of it. John Pory once again wrote, “Able to raise enough tobacco to earn 200 pounds… We have to pay all of our expenses.” (Document E2) The living was hard and they had to pay all their expenses which was easier because crops like these were a viable to grow. The New England region was different, casting short and mild growing seasons with harsh winters and had to rely more on fishing and hunting than crops for food and money. Economy was developed around trade and fur. Sandy, rocky soil made it hard for agriculture, but fortunately basic crops like corn were grown within these climates. (Venn Diagram) The lack of favorable rich soil made the cash crops like tobacco hard to be grown in this region which eventually made the fishing, hunting, and trading more appropriate. The source of profit was so important to them since the time was right they had people do this for them. “Slavery began (Picking Tobacco)” (Venn Diagram) They would have these favorable conditions and explode them by having the slaves do all the “dirty work” for …show more content…

The New England region allowed both men and women, but in Chesapeake they didn't allow women. In New England they had migrated with families and allowed middle-aged men and women to be on this trip. This had an impact where men and women had different work roles usually men doing the hunting and fishing while the women and if they had children would have the house keeping job. This would differ from the Chesapeake region where they brought no families and only had young men more than fourteen and without females they would not be able to reproduce and have families. This changed how they jobs would work because then they would not have the gender roles as presented in New England. Once they reached their settlement they had different scenarios with the natives. In New England they have less encounters with the Natives there since the disease was present wiped them out. The Natives were decimated by the disease before the Mayflower reached land which concluded to less conflict. On the other hand the Natives were not decimated in Chesapeake which then created more conflicts since it was always wars and conflict for the land and resources within the land. There was war between them and the Powhatans which was the Powhatan War because of such land and resources. For this reason is another added on reason to how these regions and settlements

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