The New England Case

The New England and Chesapeake colonies also differed socially and culturally. The settlers of the New England colonies fled to the New World because of religious persecution in England, and many of these settlers were religious dissenters. In England, there were anti-Puritan persecutions led by Archbishop William Laud. As a result, a group of Puritans secured a charter to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. Even though the Puritans came to the colonies searching for religious freedom, they came for wealth and prosperity as well. The belief of having wealth and fortune went back to the ideologies of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Regardless, religion and remained the foundation of Puritan life in New England because the Puritans believed that they had a covenant with God to build a holy society that would serve as a model to humanity. In “A Model of Christian Charity”, John Winthrop wrote that his followers must be knit together and keep the unity of the sprit. He had a strong desire for the Puritans to establish “a city upon a hill” (Doc. A). The settlers of Chesapeake colonies, however, ventured to the New World seeking gold and economic opportunities. Maryland was partially an exception to that rule because Lord Baltimore founded Maryland in 1634 primarily to create a haven for Catholics and attain financial profits. England, which was Protestant during that time, was persecuting Roman Catholics and they faced much discrimination. However, Maryland became very prosperous through the tobacco industry and it relied on white indentured servants for labor, as Virginia did. In the Chesapeake colonies, the majority of the population was made up of indentured servants and many of the settlers were single white men. In a “Ship’s List of Emigrants Bound for Virginia”, the average male age was about 23 years old. There were also few women on the emigration list, which foreshadowed the difference in population growth in the Chesapeake and the New