DBQ: Colonial New England and Chesapeake Regions
It is common knowledge among citizens of the United States that our country was first inhabited by Native Americans and later Europeans. More specifically, the English came to the New World throughout the 17th Century and settled along the eastern coast. The earliest English settlers established ground in Virginia in the Chesapeake region. Not too many years later, more people from England arrived in the Massachusetts Bay region and named that area “New England”. Despite their English roots, these areas developed in completely different ways. The inhabitants of the Chesapeake and New England regions had different motives for their journeys and had distinct intentions for their respective colonies.…show more content… Gold played a massive part in the Virginia settlers emigration from England. In History of Virginia (1624), Captain John Smith stated that people did nothing “but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, and load gold.” Striking for gold was the top priority for these settlers. In fact, a manifest for a ship to Virginia in 1635 revealed that extremely young women and, primarily, men were transported to America. These people were loyal to their homeland. They planned on prospering off of the New World’s benefits and then returning to England all while remaining faithful to the Church of England. Even though Chesapeake settlers were true to the church back home, they did not want to base their new society off of it. Leaders, such as William Berkeley and his council, didn’t think they needed God to help them because they assumed nature and the geography of the south would protect them. Better economics and a less religious government we the foundations for the Chesapeake