Similarities between Massachusetts and Virginia Colonies: Compare and Contrast Essay

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Virginia was the first colony. It all started in 1607 with the founding of Jamestown. Its capital was Jamestown until 1699 when it was renamed Williamsburg. For the time being, James I got their charter revoked and declared it a crown colony. Due to its allegiance to the crown during the Commonwealth of England, it was later dubbed ‘The Old Dominion.’ Massachusetts was the next settlement, and it merged with the Plymouth colony to form the Province of Massachusetts. While many of the governors and officials were Puritans, all faiths were accepted. William Penn established the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681. It had a well-organized government, with a governor, proprietor, big legislature, and Assembly. Charles II reissued the charter in 1663, awarding the Province to his eight Lord Proprietors who aided in his restoration. Since the two regions of the colony had entirely independent governments and cultures, the province was gradually divided into two colonies. Finally, Georgia was the last and farthest south colony, established in 1732. General James Oglethorpe founded the colony as a haven for debtors.

In 1628, John Winthrop founded Massachusetts as a New England Colony. Virginia was created in 1607 by King James I. Jamestown was the state’s first settlement. Boston and Salem, Massachusetts’ first two towns, were established around the same time. Massachusetts and Virginia were also royal colonies. While the economies of Massachusetts and Virginia were based on separate commodities, each colony thrived in its own unique way. The state of Virginia was built on the fact that land was abundant, but labor was scarce. One factor that aided Massachusetts’ economy was the ability to cut out the ‘middleman’ of a trade by using their own boats and traders.

Tobacco was their most valuable resource due to Virginia’s fertile ground. Thanks to the mild atmosphere and abundant rainfall, Virginia’s land was extremely fertile. There were plenty of staples in Virginia to sell for English products. While the Massachusetts colony lacked staples for exchange, it had great rivers for trade with other nations. Virginia was an Anglican colony at the time. William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, decreed in 1642 that the colony’s whole population be Anglican. The inhabitants of the Massachusetts colonies were mostly Puritans, but they practiced a ‘purified’ kind of the Anglican Church. Believers in Massachusetts challenged the government, which was suppressed in the 1630s and again in the 1650s. Since their land was less fertile, Massachusetts had fewer slaves. In contrast to slaves in the South, slaves in Massachusetts had a more peaceful way of life.

Finally, in Virginia, English manors were converted into southern plantations, and in Massachusetts, the New England village was transformed into the New England region. The «colonial» model originated in Virginia in the seventeenth century. People in Massachusetts used to dwell in teepees or caves. Because of the snowy winters in Massachusetts, they had very steep roofs that were coated in grasses. New England homes, like the Virginia Mansions, were built around a fireplace by the end of the seventeenth century and had glass windows.

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