American Colonies Essay, Research Paper

Differently America was a place for dreams and new beginnings, until ?white?

people arrived in 1607. Three groups sailed over the treacherous Atlantic from

their cruel lives in England to set up peaceful religious colonies. The only

problem is that they attempted to settle in their own way and all failed

dismally. The New England, Middle and Southern Colonies grew differently over

the period 1619-1760.Examining the three sets of colonies will prove that they

were all different: socially, economically, politically but not philosophically.

Socially the three groups of colonies developed differently. The New England

Colonies life was dominated by the Puritan religion. There was strict

observation of the Sabbath, people dressed in somber clothing, Christmas and

birthdays were not celebrated and religious tolerance was not practiced. People

supported each other to create a one-class system: middle class, a homogenous

background. In the Middle Colonies the cosmopolitan population celebrated for

any reason, wore the latest European Fashions and practiced religious

toleration. They had a two-class system of upper class landowners and middle

class professionals living in large cities. In the Southern Colonies the

plantations and cosmopolitan environment dominated social life. The Southern

Colonies had a strict three class system: upper class rich plantation owners,

middle class small plantation owners, lower class poor whites and a population

of Negroes of ?no? class. As can be seen socially all three sets of colonies

were different. The three colonies all wanted to make money but they had to go

about it in different ways. This was mainly due to what they had available. The

New England Colonies were mainly agricultural farmers. With all the water

reservoirs like Cape Cod there were plenty of fish so lots of people became

fishermen. There were a lot of lumberjacks to cut down trees and export them to

England. The Middle Colonies were extremely different because they set up

extensive cosmopolitan cities reminiscent of New York. They had many specialists

like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. They traded a lot with in

North America and occasionally overseas. The Southern Colonies primarily

depended on cotton and tobacco plantations. As the plantations grew they had to

employ black slaves. The plantations were fully self contained with their own

blacksmith, teachers and professionals. So there were no big cities or towns.

The main plantations traded directly with Europe via the Mississippi. The three

colonies all made money differently with their diverse professions and traders.

The three colonies all had comparable similarities, as they were all democratic.

But they ran their democratic government differently. For instance the New

England Colonies was a Theocracy, which meant that the church controlled the

government. The Middle Colonies had their church and government separate. The

Southern Colonies were the most inequitable as they were an Oligarchy. This

meant that the rich plantation owners controlled the government because they

were the only people who could afford to pay for all their own expenses. Even

though the three colonies were all democratic they all had contradictory

differences. Philosophically all the colonies were essentially the same. They

all cherished a new start in life, their own religion, religious tolerance,

trade and acquisition land. With the same goals the three colonies ended up

principally a contradictory to each other. They all wanted to leave England to

get away from the percussion and religious intolerance. But after a couple of

years the people were just as intorlent to other as in England. All three

colonies all tried to achieve to the same goals in a different way therefore all

three colonies were separate and diverse from each other.