American Colonies
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.