Chesapeake
vs.
New England
with special appearance
by
The Middle Colonies
New England
•“Middling Sorts”
•Came with families
• Ethnically homogenous
•Balanced b/t genders
•2% of pop. are slaves
•Mixed economy
•Soil rocky
•Rivers unnavigable
•Democratic
•Town-centered life
•Lived much longer
• “Invented Grandparents”
17th Century Emigration
New England: 21,000
C h e s a p e a k e : 120,000
Population in 1700
New England: 91,000
Chesapeake: 85,000
A New Englander Expounds
Life Expectancy
New England: 70
Chesap eake: 45
“If men desire to have a people degenerate speedily,
and to corrupt their mindes and bodies too...let them
se[e]cke a rich soil, that brings in much with little labour;
but if they desire that Piety and Godlinesse should
prosper...let them choose a Country such as [New
England] which may yield sufficiency with hard labour and
industry.”
Chesapeake/Southern
Chesapeake
•Poorer on average
•Mostly single men
•4-1 ratio of m/f
•13% of pop. are slaves
•Single cash crop
•Fertile soil
•Rivers navigable
•Plantation-based
• Less democratic, more
•Poorer on average
•Mostly single men
•4-1 ratio of m/f
•13% of pop. are slaves
•Single cash crop
•Fertile soil
•Rivers navigable
•Plantation-based
• Less democratic, more
•Lived much shorter
•Lived much shorter
aristocratic
aristocratic
Berkeley Bloviates
Berkeley Bloviates
“I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing
[in Virginia], and I hope we shall not have these [for
a] hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy...into the world, and
printing has divulged them, and libels against the
best government. God keep us from both!”
“How miserable that man is that Governes a People
wher[e] six parts of seaven at least are Poore,
Endebted, Discontented, and Armed.”
The Middle Colonies
•Fertile soil
•Great availability of land
•Navigable rivers
•Diversified economy
•Ethnically mixed population
•8% of pop. are slaves
•Religiously tolerant
•Democratic region