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.