Describe the main differences between the southern and the northern colonies which were

established by the British in North America.

!!!!!!!!! Colonies are NOT states!!!!!!! The period you were being asked to write about goes from
1607-1776 !!!!

!!!!!!!!! I found the following list of characteristics in many papers:

“The northern colonies’ regional characteristics include: Common heritage, small villages, shared
land, subsistence farmers, busy seaports, difficult and primitive, entertainment involved work.

But the Southern colonies’ regional characteristics include: Contrast between plantations and
backcountry, self-sufficient community, slavery, backcountry constant struggle and little money and
jealousy, coast wealthy, very diverse”

Does it come from your lectures? You cannot just list terms and leave it at that. You have to explain
what each point refers to!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!! Papers should be of significant length and should aim at exhaustivity. They should also be
structured (introduction, body, conclusion).

While there might be a tendency to think of the 13 British colonies of North America as a unified
whole, it is important to realize that was not the case and that each one of them was unique in terms
of its history and culture. The 13 colonies were not all set up at the same time, but over a period
spanning more than a century (from the foundation of Jamestown in 1607 to that of Georgia in
1732). Generally speaking, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island belong
to the first wave of colonization (1607 to 1640s), which was followed by a second wave in the 1660s-
1680s ( Restoration colonies – King Charles II – New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the
Carolinas), Georgia’s late foundation being somewhat of an exception. Aside from chronological
considerations, one could point to several other factors having contributed to the colonies’ unique
differentiation. For practical reasons, however, historians have often grouped colonies by region,
contrasting the main characteristics of the “Northern” settlements with those of the “Southern”
ones.

The exact geographical limits of North and South are sometimes hard to identify, making the notions
potentially ambiguous. Generally speaking, however, when referring to “The South”, historians have
included Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. Northern colonies are somewhat more
difficult to define owing to the existence of two distinct regions: New England on the one hand, and
the “Middle colonies” on the other (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware). These two
regions, however, have more things in common with one another than they do with the south,
making it possible to consider them together.
Differences between Northern and Southern settlements can be traced back to the implantation of
the first two successful British outposts in North America: Jamestown (1607) and Massachusetts Bay
(1630). These two colonies were founded for very different reasons and developed into “two
profoundly different colonies” as Professor Miller pointed out in the educational video A Biography
of America. Again to quote Professor Miller, Jamestown was founded as “a business proposition”.
The settlement was financed by the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock venture authorized by
King James I for the purpose of colonizing North America. The purpose of the company was to make
a profit, and the idea was to exploit Virginia’s natural resources, the first of which was supposed to
be gold. Gold was never found, however and settlers began capitalizing on Virginia’s fertile soil by
massively cultivating tobacco to be sold in Europe.

Massachusetts colonists, on the other hand, were mostly Puritans who fled Britain for religious
reasons. In 1620, a first settlement was established south of Cape Cod – Plymouth Plantation. This
settlement remained small, having been implanted by a group of puritan separatists who wished to
break away from the Church of England. A wider and more successful settlement was set up 10 years
later by a group of Congregationalists, led by John Winthrop. Wishing to establish “God’s heavenly
city on Earth”, Winthrop and his followers were aiming at creating a utopian society; a “City upon a
hill” which would serve as a “model of Christian charity” to be followed by the rest of the Christian
world.

The circumstances of the creation of Jamestown and Massachusetts conveniently allow us to

understand some of the differences that emerged in the social and economic organization of the two
colonies. For many years, Jamestown remained an unstable and violent place. Women and families
were scarce. Diseases decimated the population, which had trouble renewing itself and the
cultivation of cash crops like tobacco led to the establishment of plantations as the nerve centers of
the region’s economic and social activities. As plantations were far apart from one another, there
was little interaction between people outside one’s immediate circle. Few cities were built in the
south, and those that existed did not provide adequate public facilities. Churches, schools and
libraries were scarce.

Massachusetts, on the other hand, had been intended as a community from the start. Towns were
important social centers where all kinds of activities took place. Education and religion were
priorities, so each town counted schools and churches. Land was more equitably distributed as well,
with individual families being granted plots of land that were to be cultivated for their own
subsistence.

The models of society initially sketched out by Massachusetts Bay and Jamestown were expanded to
the neighboring regions, constituting the backbone of northern and southern cultures.

The South’s warm climate and fertile soil was propitious to the cultivation of cash crops such as
tobacco, indigo, cotton, sugar etc. This led wealthy people to accumulate land, which was unequally
distributed as a result. Cash-crop cultivation being labor intensive, the south quickly developed into a
slaveholding society, following the model that had already been set up in the Sugar Islands
(Caribbean). The first African slaves arrived in North America (Jamestown) in 1619, their status
shifting from that of temporary servitude to one of lifelong and hereditary bondage over the decades
that followed. Southern states also relied on indentured servitude as a source of cheap labor.

Owing to more rigid winters and less fertile, rocky soils, the northern economy developed around
other kinds of commerce. Forests were abundant, so timber became a valuable resource.
Shipbuilding and fisheries were other sources of revenue, as were other manufactures. While slavery
was not illegal in the north, the absence of labor-intensive activities made it less frequent. Slave
traders living in northern provinces benefited from the triangular trade, however, directly
contributing to the establishment of the institution in the south.

Southerners had maintained closer ties to the mother land, both commercially and culturally. Lacking
schools and other institutions, wealthy southerners often sent their children to England to pursue
higher education. They were also predominantly Anglican, although Maryland offered a haven for
Catholics. Northern provinces tended to be more self-reliant and self-governing. Children were
educated locally, which led to the creation of renowned institutions and universities like Harvard and
Yale.

As the years went by Northern and Southern regions became increasingly entrenched in their own
modes of life. While the Revolution successfully bridged divides for a time, bringing north and south
together for the common purpose of fighting for freedom, the period of the Young Republic opened-
up a new challenge by calling on Americans to define their own political and social identity.
Characterized by profoundly different ways of life, as well as different economic models of
development, North and South failed to bridge their gaps, evolving into two increasingly different
regions whose ideological divides would lead them to fight against one another in the Civil War.