This paper compares and contrasts colonial life in two major regions of early America: New England and the Chesapeake area. It begins by examining the economic, legal, and religious pressures in England that drove settlers to cross the Atlantic and examines the hardships of the voyage itself. The paper then traces how climate, religion, labor practices, and social structure shaped two distinct ways of life. The southern Chesapeake colonies reproduced English class hierarchies, relied on tobacco agriculture, and eventually turned to enslaved labor, while the northern New England colonies emphasized religious freedom, manufacturing, and greater social equality. The paper concludes that although both regions shared the colonial American identity, their foundational values and daily realities diverged sharply until shared conflicts forged a united nation.
This paper demonstrates the use of a thematic compare-and-contrast framework applied to historical analysis. Rather than narrating each region in isolation, the author identifies shared themes — labor supply, religious motivation, agricultural practice, and loyalty to England — and uses each as a lens to highlight regional divergence. This technique helps readers understand systemic historical differences rather than isolated facts.
The paper opens with an introduction framing the topic, followed by a section on the causes of colonial migration that applies equally to both regions. It then devotes separate sections to the Chesapeake and New England colonies before a comparative daily-life discussion and a brief conclusion. The structure moves from shared origins to regional divergence, mirroring the historical process it describes.
Each year as Thanksgiving approaches, students throughout the nation dress in traditional colonial garb and put on skits and meals to portray colonial life in America. While this has become a tradition for American students, it has also become a blended, generic portrayal of colonial life with little attention paid to regional differences and similarities. Colonial times shared many similar facets as the nation of America began to build its foundation, but within that era there were also region- and culture-specific differences that set populations apart from each other. Colonial American life in New England and in the Chesapeake area can be placed side by side to illustrate both the sameness and the very real differences experienced by those who lived in each region.
Before one can understand the differences in colonial lives, one must first understand how people came to leave their mother nation. Once they arrived in America, the division of lifestyles became apparent by the region people chose to settle in.
There were several reasons that people living in colonial-era England chose to come to America. It was early in the seventeenth century when the idea began to form among those who were dissatisfied with unfavorable economic conditions in England. Many factors contributed to the continued unrest of those who endured life in a struggling homeland, including low wages, high unemployment, and scarce commodities. All of these elements combined to produce a harsh life for the people of England. Work and wage conditions were not the only factors driving the idea of colonization in the new world.
Another contributing factor was England's inheritance law. At that time the law provided that the eldest son inherited virtually all of the father's wealth, property, and belongings upon the father's death. This law caused many later-born sons — and all daughters who had brothers — to become impoverished upon the death of their fathers. Younger siblings often found themselves at the mercy of their older brothers and dependent on them for support. Some older siblings refused to provide that support, while others simply did not want to be relied upon. Coupled with the struggling economic conditions of the nation, the inheritance laws created additional stress for many people. All of these elements together created an atmosphere of widespread dissent that led many to cross the sea to America and start life anew (Ubbeohde, 1975).
Upon hearing often-exaggerated stories of a new, unsettled land "of milk and honey" — where land was there for the taking and a fortune could be made — and upon learning that the law allotted every settler fifty acres of land for each family member brought to the new world, many a man of humble means sacrificed all he had for the chance to seek his fortune and begin a new life in America.
While economic conditions played an important part in the migration, they were not the only factor. Religious and political circumstances in England were equally foundational. In 1642, civil war broke out in England, dividing the country between King Charles I and his supporters (known as Royalists or Cavaliers) and Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell. The English Puritans, known as "Roundheads," were a dominant faction within Parliament and a powerful force against the Crown. As Cromwell gained increasing control of the government, the Royalists came under severe persecution. Others came to the new land for the freedom to worship as they wished — something that was not permitted in England.
The voyage to America generally took three months and was as difficult as anything the colonists had previously endured. Ships were dirty, overcrowded, low on food, and offered substandard living quarters. People braved these conditions for the chance to live in the colonies. Once they arrived, however, the realities set in and regional divisions became evident through the demands of survival.
The gross uncleanliness and generally unwholesome conditions aboard the crowded vessels resulted in the outbreak of epidemic diseases. The great epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other contagious diseases — which at times spread throughout the colonies and claimed many lives — were often the result of illnesses originating on these contaminated ships. Once in America, generations began to flourish, though significant differences between regional areas of colonial life quickly emerged.
Those in the Chesapeake area endured a class system — which was precisely what many claimed to be escaping in England (Quinn, 1977). Life was hard during the winter, and the staple diet at that time consisted mostly of dried meat and water. Although America was indeed a land of opportunity, it was not without many hardships and dangers. The winters were often severe, and many early immigrants suffered greatly through the cold seasons. Unable to readily preserve foodstuffs, the colonists cured or smoked meats and pickled various types of vegetables. They also stored certain vegetables and fruits in cool, dry cellars.
Native Americans posed a threat to both the Chesapeake and the New England colonial populations, but there appeared to be a greater threat in the southern regions than in New England.
The average middle-class planter in colonial Virginia usually owned between fifty and five hundred acres of land, only part of which was under cultivation at any given time — a stark contrast to the several thousand acres held by some wealthy aristocrats. The relatively modest Virginia yeoman was, without doubt, the envy of farmers in Europe, for in terms of the land and livestock he could readily acquire, he compared favorably to many a wealthy English squire. Although possibly clothed in worn garments, the yeoman planter under normal conditions had no reason to feel the pangs of hunger.
Even the poorest planter was typically provided with various head of cattle, which were quite plentiful in the colony. Cattle supplied families not only with beef, but with milk from which butter and cheese could be made. They also supplied leather for shoes and leggings. Often even more common than beef was pork — swine were plentiful, and planters often marked them and let them loose to forage in the forest, feeding upon roots and acorns. Poultry was also exceedingly abundant, and in the lakes, rivers, and forests, colonial hunters could bring down all manner of fowl, including turkey, duck, geese, and quail. In addition, many fruits and vegetables were grown in the region that were not as plentiful elsewhere in the colonies.
A mainstay in both colonial regions was the ability to fish, hunt, and plant crops — skills that were necessary regardless of whether one lived in New England or in the southern areas of the country, as they were the foundation of feeding one's family.
Another significant difference between the north and the south during colonial times was the availability of labor. The south had serious problems retaining a reliable workforce, which caused considerable trouble at harvest time. While the north maintained a steady supply of willing workers, the south continued to suffer from a small and unreliable workforce for many years during the colonial period. This was one of the most important distinctions between the two regions.
The southern colonial residents eventually saw no alternative but to accept the institution of slavery. In 1649, when Virginia was growing quite rapidly and the white population numbered nearly 15,000, there were only about 300 Black inhabitants in the colony — approximately two percent of the population. However, throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Black population grew so rapidly that by 1730 there were nearly 30,000 Black people in Virginia, representing approximately twenty-five percent of the population. With the large influx of enslaved Africans imported during this period by wealthy plantation owners, the common yeoman faced a serious economic crisis.
This development further widened the gap between the wealthy and the poor in the south, which in turn deepened the divide between north and south in colonial life, as the south maintained far more pronounced class distinctions than the northern colonies.
Given the many differences between the north and the south during the colonial American period, perhaps the most significant was the south's continued allegiance to England as the mother nation. Virginia in the colonial period was linked to England by government, commerce, religion, education, dress, and nearly every aspect of daily life. But despite all these bonds with the mother country, the colonist was slowly and inevitably becoming more American and less English. It was life on the Virginia plantation — unfamiliar to the average Englishman — that shaped the daily life of the Virginian and set him apart from the English people. Even so, most Virginians still considered themselves Englishmen, and it was not until the conflict of the Revolutionary War that they, along with the majority of other Americans, declared their independence from England and the thirteen loosely bound colonies became the United States of America.
The differences between New England and southern colonial life are easy to identify because they profoundly shaped the course of American history (Bremer, 1976). One of the primary motivations for settling the northern colonies was religion. Those inclined to move north did so because they wanted to practice their faith in the manner that suited them.
While religion was a central focus of the northern colonies, climate created yet another major difference between north and south. Because of the northern climate, manufacturing naturally emerged as an economic foundation, while the warmer southern climate pushed development in the direction of agriculture during the colonial period.
The social structure of the north during colonial settlement was based on a greater degree of equality — a stark contrast to the rigid class structure of the southern colonies. The basic Puritan beliefs that guided the northern colonists included:
Grace — Humankind was inherently sinful, and redemption could only be granted by God; no amount of good deeds could redeem a soul.
Plainness — Everything should be free of frivolous, decorative excess.
Divine Mission — The New World was to be settled for the glory of God.
As much as the northern colonies strove for independence, the southern colonies clung to the mother nation and its ways. The southern colonies hoped that colonial development would provide new goods and trade opportunities for the British market, and life there offered the British a means of acquiring cheap land. While the New England colonists believed that hard work and effort would produce success, the colonists in the south looked increasingly toward exploiting Native Americans and later enslaved Africans as the workforce for their profit. In essence, the north worked, while the south sought workers.
Several legislative and commercial arrangements helped promote continued loyalty to England in the southern colonies, including:
Bremer, F. J. (1976). The Puritan experiment: New England society from Bradford to Edwards. New York: St. Martin's.
Quinn, D. B. (1977). North America from earliest discovery to first settlements. New York: Harper and Row.
Tate, T. W., & Ammerman, D. L. (Eds.). (1979). The Chesapeake in the seventeenth century: Essays in Anglo-American society and politics. New York: W. W. Norton.
Ubbeohde, C. (1975). The American colonies and the British empire, 1607–1763 (2nd ed.). Northbrook, IL: AHM.
Lawrence, L. (1997, October 29). Chronicling Black lives in colonial New England. The Christian Science Monitor.
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