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Dylan Tribbie
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AP American History DBQ
The New England region and the Chesapeake region had extremely different
societies, the main causes of this being their differences in religious beliefs, their economic
strategies, their heterogeneity in geography, and the individual social issues present in the
colonies. The Chesapeake region was largely inhabited by separatists, while the New
Englanders were puritans. This split of beliefs set the colonies apart from the initial
founding. New Englanders were only earning what they could live off of; tradesmen and
laborers were urged to consider the religious part of their callings (Document E). Whereas
in Chesapeake, the headmasters of slavery plantations were wealthy and had no religious
calling to share with others. Due to where New England is located, their weather was harsh
in the winter, resulting in the greater difficulty to establish colonies. In Virginia, it “is
intersected by so many vast rivers as makes more miles to defend than we have men of
trust to defend them.” (Document G). The emigrants to New England, being puritans,
believed in colonization through a web of families. Document B supports this by showing
the family immigrating to New England. The separatists headed for Virginia were mainly
all young, non-related males (Document C). Though settled by people of the same origin,
the two regions changed massively from each other simply by different sets of values
carried by the founders.
The Chesapeake region was settled by separatists. Separatists were highly different
in their views of religion. They resolved that the Church of England was corrupt and they
needed to sever their ties with it. They came to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 to seek
religious freedom. Their beliefs led them to be a “city on a hill” (Document A) for all other
future colonies. When the colonies of New England were settled, the Puritans wanted to
reform the English Church from the inside, instead of separating from it. Document D
states that the founders of Massachusetts intended their colony to be composed of forty
families. This intention of reform showed that the Puritan’s were a more peaceful, caring
people. Colonies founded from family ties, and the willingness to care for each other,
automatically predict a different evolution of the region from the more aggressive
Chesapeake region.
The Virginia colony, and incidentally, the Separatists practiced slavery. Slavery led
to changes in the economy. The headmasters of slave plantations had a lot of wealth, and
had no religious callings to share their wealth. In Connecticut, 1676, New Englanders were
only supposed to make enough money as to benefit themselves sufficiently. They were to
abstain from hoarding, and to avoid personal earnings. In the Articles of Agreement of
Springfield, Massachusetts, “ever inhabitant shall have a convenient proportion for a house
lot, and everyone shall have a share of the meadow or planting ground.” (Document D).
The inequities of the Virginia colony resulted in changes in the economy which didn’t
happen in the equal opportunity economy of the Massachusetts colony.
Aforementioned from Document G, the colony of Virginia was hard to defend

because it was criss-crossed with wide rivers. Attributing to the difficulty to defend was the
lack of unity between colony members. Stated earlier, the separatists of the Chesapeake
area were not connected by family (Document C), so did not fight together well. The
geography of New England caused the colonists there to develop a physical change not
seen in Chesapeakians. Due to the location of the New England colonies, it was bitterly
cold in the winters, thus resulting in the thickening of the blood of the northern colonists.
Not only did the geography set the colonies apart physically, it directly made the colonists
themselves evolve in a separate fashion.
Early in the founding of Virginia conflict amongst the colonists arose. According to
John Smith, in the History of Virginia, Smith was doing as according to his job, caused the
pinnance [small ship] to be provided with things to gather provisions for the next year. Two
councilmen, planned to go with other confederates back to England secretly. (Document F)
Early conflicts such as these caused a portion of the population of Virginia to die off. Later
in Virginia’s history, Bacon led a rebellion against the Virginian governor, Berkeley.
(Document H). New England’s Puritan colonies scarcely had any social problems due to
their family values and religious devotion. A violent settlement would lead to violent
colonists, and then potentially unstable governments. A predominantly peaceful colony
easily leads to secure economic, social, and governmental growth.
Although settled by the same English people, New England developed into a
religiously tolerant settlement, with peaceful social relations, a stable economy and lasting
settlements. The Chesapeake region, though having a rougher beginning, did not fail. The
region had slightly more aggressive colonists, poor defenses due to geographic features,
and slavery which led to an imbalance of wealth. Despite these things, the Chesapeake
region naturally grew into a more hardy area, with simply different religious beliefs.

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Dylan Tribbie

AP American History DBQ

Aforementioned from Document G, the colony of Virginia was hard to defend

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