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Document Based Question on the Colonies Essay

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Document Based Question on the Colonies The 1600's were a time of global expansion, and the search for a new world where people could start their lives anew and have a say in the way their society was run. After Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas, countries began to send colonies to settle and establish a presence in the vast and unconquered land. The English sent some of the largest amounts of immigrants to the new world. One …show more content…

The Puritan people who came to the Americas were separatists who sought to establish a new religiously based community that could be immune from outside influences. While the Chesapeake settlers came to the America's solely to grow tobacco and turn a profit for the joint stock companies that sent them. These differences in purpose are evidenced by the lists of people who first established the colonies. In 1635, the emigrants sent to Virginia by these joint stock companies were composed primarily of young single men in their twenties who could work on the tobacco farms (Doc C). They were not sent with their families and out of the long list of emigrants, only 11 were women. This shows that the stock companies really didn't care if their colonists established a community and were only concerned with making money. The New England list of emigrants however shows entire families, most containing more then four people of relation, who made the trip to the Americas (Doc B). This is due to the fact that the Puritans goal was start a community of religious families who would work together to be successful puritans in the eyes of god. This is shown through puritan leader, John Winthrop's writings known as his ‘City upon a Hill' speech (Doc A). Puritans were more focused on the community aspect and planned to use their children to work their land

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