Essay on American Revolution

Differences In Northern and Southern Colonies Proir To Revolutionary War

History 111

As Earl Nightingale stated, “we can let circumstances rule us or we can take charge and rule our lives from within” (qtd.inwww.brainyquotes.com). This attitude was held by the people who colonized the eastern seaboard of America. They left home and everything familiar to brave sickness, hunger and the threat of death on the long voyage to America, in the hopes of creating a better life. They formed settlements, some of which gradually grew into towns and cities. Over time, the southern collies developed into a involved, including climate, relations with Indians,economis, politics, and slavery but in the end there was one core reason for the distinction; mindset. The northern colonies were founded by people with a mindset grounded in religion, family and a strong work ethic whereas the southern clonies were founded by people with a mindset grounded in eltism. The north became a family centered industrial society whereas the south became profit driven, agrarian society.
The motives of the first few waves of settlers of the northern and southern colonies are quite different. New England was first settled by the Pilgrims, Puritans who were devoutly religious, placedimportance on hard work, and were dedicated to their families and community. They had served ties with the church of England, believing it had failed to compete the Reformation. They moved from England, to Holland to avoid persecution for their religious beliefs and their homesickness for England led them to set out for America, believing “themselves to be on a divine mission to create a modle society committed to the proper worship of God”(Tindall &Shi 62-63) The pruitians who settled Massachustts Bay Colny “intended it to be a holy commonwealth made up of religious folk bound together in the harmonious worship og God and the pursuit of their callings”(Tindall& Shi 65). From the beginning the daily lives and aspirations in the New England and Middle Colinies were shaped by religion, even to such an extent that relious conflict occurred and resulted in people leaving Massachusetts to form colonies in Rhode Island and Connecticut(Hoffman & Gjerde 66). Clearly, their motives were grounded in religion.
The first settlement in the south was Jamestown. A group of London investors obtaind a join-stoke enterprise called the Virgina Company from King JamesI. Their intresr was purely financial. They hoped to find a water passage to the orient, gold, and obtain products that would help the English free themselves from their dependence on trade with Spain (Tindall & Shi 50). Bottom line, their intrestes in turning profit.
The class and gender of the Pilgrims and the Jamestown settlers were very different. The Pilgraims were mostly middle class families who were able to pay for their voyage. The Jamestown settlers were elite gentlemen who were unaccustomed and possibly unwilling to engage in physical labor and intended servents who were not able to play for their voyage and had to work for a number of years before they had their freedom. In the north, work was arranged along family lines rather than through plantation system like in the south. “Family relationships could be divorced from economic considerations; indeed the basic question of power and authority within the family hinged primarily on legal control over the land”(Henretta 80) which was held by the father. He key difrence between the execution of the authority of a plantation owner versus a farm owner in the North lied in the fact that a father needed the cooperation ans support from his wife and children to survive. In the north, high fertility rates and low mortality rates meant families had lots of offsprings (henretta 80). These children helped their parents work the farm when the reached adulthood, they were given land if they were male and a dowry if

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