American Colonies Essay, Research Paper

The New England, Southern and Middle Colonies Developed 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.