Chris Nguyen
08/11/2006
AP US History
A Comparison of the New England and Chesapeake Bay Regions
During the 1700s, people in the American colonies lived in very distinctive societies.
While some colonists led hard lives, others were healthy and prosperous. The two groups
who showed these differences were the colonists of the New England and Chesapeake Bay
areas. The differentiating characteristics among the Chesapeake and New England colonies
developed due to economy, religion, and motives for colonial expansion. The colonists of
the New England area possessed a very happy and healthy life. This high way of living
was due in part to better farming, a healthier environment, and a high rate of production
because of more factories. The colonists of the Chesapeake Bay region, on the other hand,
led harder lives compared to that of the colonists of New England. The Chesapeake Bay
had an unhealthy environment, bad eating diets, and intolerable labor.
The colonists had different reasons for settling in these two distinct regions. The New
England region was a more religiously strict yet diverse area compared to that of the
Chesapeake Bay. The development of religion in the two regions came from separate roots.
After Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church broke away from each other, a new
group of English reformers was created called the Puritans. The Puritans came from
protestant backgrounds, after being influenced by Calvinistic ideas. When their reforms
were thwarted by King James I of England, they fled to the New World in what is now
known as the “Great Migration”. The Puritans were then joined by Quakers, Protestants,
