Northern Colonies Vs Southern Colonies Essay

Colonial America by the mid 1700’s consisted of three major regions. However the New England area and the Southern regions were the most important. The New England region included the colonies of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Southern Region, also known as the Chesapeake Colonies, included the Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Although both the regions consisted of British colonies, each region differed in reasons for settlement, religious views, and economic activity and its connection to the amount of slavery in the region. While they both initially were just “investments”, the Northern colonies lacked diversity and had difficult land to farm on, while the southern colonies were very rural, relied a lot of slave labor, and had an excellent climate for farming.

The people of New England shared certain characteristics and lacked the diversity experienced in the Middle or Southern colonies.

Both lands had royal governors who controlled and ruled. The North and South also had legislatures that had the power to create, amend, and ratify the laws. The North and South both supported the use of indentured servants, people who worked their debt off with labor work for landowners for about seven years. And both regions very heavily influenced by mercantilism. This was an Economic philosophy or practice in which England established the colonies to provide raw materials to the Mother Country; the colonies received manufactured goods in return. While the south used slaves more than the north, the north still used them. Another similarity was the status of women. Although the women were treated better than the slaves, they were not given any respect. In the colonies, the females had no say about anything including their rights, or lack thereof, such as the right to choose who they would