Colonists

While both the New England and Chesapeake settlements were founded by the English, the two areas diverged into very different societies. These differences were formed by factors such as the identities of the early colonists and their founding principles.

John Winthrop and the non-separatists that migrated to Massachusetts Bay alongside him had the intent of convincing England to separate more quickly from Catholicism by showing its merits through example in the New World. By creating the Puritan settlement in New England, John Winthrop and the non-separatists hoped to unite and serve as a "city upon a hill," to serve as a beacon that would convince England to follow in their footsteps and forsake Catholicism. The Massachusetts Bay colonists would vow to be faithful to God and to each other in order to lead by example, which would cause the denizens of the New England colonies to grow into a religious and close-knit society during their attempts to convert England.

In Document B, John Porter's list of emigrants shows that many of the emigrants came together as families and servants, showing that the New England colonists started out wealthy enough to bring their families and their servants along with them. These emigrants were generally Puritans that wanted a better life in New England with a more desirable religious state of being where they would be welcomed and given land and opportunity. While the New England immigrants would often come together, the emigrants bound for Virginia rarely came together with family; they often came as indentured servants who had to either go to the New World to pay off debts or simply to gain land and money in a new land of opportunity. Because the Virginia colonists were not united by family or religion, they would not become a close-knit society like the New England colonies, but instead they would become disconnected and live far apart from each other, unwilling to protect and aid one another.

Because the New England colonists were very pious and intended to create a model society, they undertook aspirations that would make life enjoyable for all. In Document D, it is decreed in the Articles of Agreement that it will be seen fit that everyone "shall have a convenient proportion for a house lot, as we shall see [fit] for everyone's quality and estate," as well as a "share of the meadow or planting ground." The New England colonists, as earlier stated in Document A, would not deal falsely in God and taint their holy experiment. Instead, they would be kind