Differences Between Southern Colonies And New England Colonies

The New England, Middle, and Southern colonies were mostly made up the same ethnic groups, but they differed in their major religions. The orignal colonists in American were English, but over time people from France, Germany, and Holland began to settle there as well. Even so, Englishmen were still the majority of the colonies, so their social stucture was similar throughout America. Along with having different religions, the colonies also had different levels of religious freedom. The New England colonies were chiefly Puritan with little to no religious freedom.

New England, Middle, and the Southern colonies were alike in many ways. New England, Middle, and the Southern colonies were also different in a number of ways. To begin, New England's economy was powered mostly by manufacturing factories. New England colonies did not believe in slavery so the social standing were not the same. New England had a stronger economy.

They also had a larger class of indentured servants and were mainly slaved based. In addition, the south lacked industry and ship building. Cotton was their main source. “Their religious systems” The south lacked religious organization; however, the other colonies had a diverse religious system.

The Southern colonies differed in that slave labor was crucial to their society. In New England everyone helped with the family chores. It didn’t matter whether you were 5 or 50. As long as you could walk, there would be something for you to do. Even though the soil was weak in quality and very rocky, they still managed to farm some crops including corn, rye, peas, squash and pumpkins.

The two colonies differed politically. “God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, [that]in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, other mean and in subjection” (Doc. A).The New England colony was a representative democracy; they held town meetings. It placed emphasize on having poor and rich families because of the importance of an equal society with representation from all sectors of life. “We intend by God's grace, as soon as we can, with all convenient speed, to procure some Godly and faithful minister with whom we purpose to join in church covenant to walk in all the ways of Christ” (Doc. D).

How different could the Northern and Southern colonies really be, considering that they were so close? Their differences made them into two very diverse colonies, almost exactly opposite. The North was full of college educated Puritans with large families. The settlers in Southern colonies were not educated or strictly religious, and were usually single men looking to make a new life. The climate and landscape of the Northern colonies was not ideal.

The New England colonies were first founded in the last 16th to 17th century as a sanctuary for differing religious groups. New England was made up of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. New Hampshire, however, was formed for economic reasons instead of religious ones. The Chesapeake region, which is made up of the colonies of Maryland and Virginia, was founded by the British colonies for the purpose of farming. However, by the 1700’s, despite both being settled by Englishmen, New England and the Chesapeake region had developed differently.

There were considerable differences between the North, Middle and Southern regions. The New England climate has four seasons. The climate of the Northern colonies was mild with short summers. Northern colonies have long, cold and snowy winters, however, less disease than the Southern colonies and Middle colonies. In contrast with the New England, the Southern colonies have the very warm climate.

New England did not "have all of it 's investments tied up on one place" very like the Chesapeake. The economy depended on angling, shipbuilding, and cultivating. The cultivating in New England was done on a substantially littler scale, notwithstanding. Since the religion (and society) was so family-situated, ranches were generally sufficiently substantial to nourish one 's family, with a little overflow. It was no where close to the span of the huge estates in the Chesapeake.

In the southern colonies the main people that inhabited the area were Catholics and protestants. The southern colonies ended up becoming excessively dependent on a plantation company that required slavery. Slavery was not a great solution to the labor problem but because a large portion or people owned a lot slaves and since that ownership was viewed as their wealth they were loathed to give up those slaves without financial compensation. Slavery was allowed in New England but very few people owned slaves. The Northern Colonies decided to take the weakling way out.

North and South Carolina used to be on big colony but ended up splitting in the year 1729 because of the differences in the colonies and the conflicts they caused. To name a few, North Carolina's population was manly made up of farmers that planted things like tobacco and corn. They also used ports in Virginia instead of the ones in South Carolina because it was very difficult to trade in the Southern ports. Whereas in South Carolina about half of the population was made up of African slaves that knew how to farm. Because of this the south was able to have large plantations and become very prosperous, they also relied on their own ports unlike the North.

Most of the people the lived in the southern colonies were from Scotland, Ireland, England. The economy thrived on the plantations that would grow cash crops. the poor people would move inland to fight the indians.

Most of them ran away to Florida where the Spanish greeted them with food, clothes and freedom. The slaves in the northern part of England's colonies did not have as hard work. They were farm-hands, dockworkers, sailors and house servants. In the south they were farm workers and they needed to harvest labor intensive crops with worse treatment and were separated from their family. They way that they transported the slaves was horrible.

During the first years of settlers in the colonies, life in the New England colonies was a struggle compared the southern colonies. Many farmers couldn’t grow much food and farmers were having a difficult time finding a stable product like sugar or tobacco(page 80). The southern colonies had found their marketable product and had gained more economically than the northern colonies. With labor costs low due to indentured servants and slaves, the southern colonies flourished.  Ira Berlin calls this generation of slaves the charter generation.

While slavery was a major part of colonial life in the Southern colonies, it was not as prevalent in New England, but that is not to say that it did not exist in New England. Slavery was not as necessary in the New England Colonies as it was in the South, but some in New England did own slaves. The stories of these slaves are few and far between due to the fact that it was not seen as such a major component of the history of New England as it was in the other colonies. The Puritans of New England arrived with a burden that they placed upon themselves to create the perfect colony, that other would have to emulate, has the city upon the hill. This created a stressful situation for the Puritans because they were under the conception that if they