Chesapeake Colonies and New England Colonies Comparison of Culture and Religion-Thesis

The early colonies in the New England and Chesapeake Bay area's similarities included their religion, language and where their loyalty was placed, whereas their differences included life expectancies, education and the center of their societies.

Back in England Catholicism was still an on and off affair, this pressed many Protestants to leave England and go to the New World in search of freedom. Plus Protestantism had became a more widely accepted faith and England was becoming much steadier in this faith staying with it longer and longer, so this is one of the main reasons as to why England's new world colonies of New England and Chesapeake share this religion.

The shared language of the colonies was English. The language was kept from being Spanish by the fact that Spain colonized mostly in the Latin American region, so the English had more of a free reign in Northern North America. Also the charters for both the New England colony and the Chesapeake colony where received from the King of England, and since England is an English speaking colony the language was brought over to the New World.

Considering that the people settling in the New World did so under the permission of the King of England, it's not surprising that they stayed loyal to the monarchy of England. The people that settled the New England area did so for semi-religious freedom, but decided that breaking away completely from the crown would not be to their best interest. While the entire reason the Chesapeake Bay area colonies were started for the very purpose of bringing wealth into the country from the New World.

Even though these two colonies shared some similarities, they had even more dissimilarities. Such as the extreme difference in their life expectancies. The Chesapeake Bay Colonies where placed in a more sever climate area that was badly placed. Their water being brackish, mosquitoes swarming the area, and the fact that most of the incoming man power would not live out their indentured servitude all dramatically lessened the life span of the people, the average man could have expected to live to about the age of 43 while women could live anywhere from about 35-38 years. On the other hand, in New England the people settled in a much more moderate climate and lived in a healthier society that was concerned about the other citizens. The New Englanders life span was close to that of modern day.

Education was also another difference in the two societies. New England required any village with 15 families or more to have an elementary school, and then any town with 100 or more families had to build an advanced middle school. The Chesapeake Bay areas had no such laws. In fact, in Virginia they bragged that you couldn't find a printing press in the entire state. Because of this the North had higher literacy rates that would take the Southern Colonies over 100 years to reach.

Where they placed the center of their town also had a lot to do with the differences in the two cultures. While the New Englanders had a strong sense of unity, and had the church and God in the center of their societies, the Chesapeake Bay citizens didn't even have towns to create unity. In fact they would not have any town of consequence for decades after their northern counterparts.

While these two areas may have had slightly similar beginnings, they evolved into two distinctly separate cultures that in the end became part of the strong American image of Yanks and Southerners.