Historical Significance

The early colonists of the Chesapeake and New England differed in many respects. Those on the Chesapeake arrived earlier and settled in an area where the Powhatan (led by a leader of the same name) had formed a powerful nation. The English adventurers hoped to get rich quick and return to England—not cultivate the soil. They were not, by the standards of the day, particularly pious.

The Puritans who landed at Massachusetts Bay in 1630 desired to create a separate and holy commonwealth in what they called New England. They came to stay and to farm, and most of them came in families. Diseases had destroyed most of the indigenous peoples of the area, and the English settlements quickly spread. The Puritans were strict Calvinists who believed that in close-knit congregations church members could ward off sin and assist one another in daily life. Puritan leaders required people to live in families and towns so that they could build communities and attend church.

The first image, below, is an artist's representation of the Chesapeake settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, the date of its settlement. The second is a map of a New England town (New Haven, Connecticut) in 1768.