New England Colonization (Chesapeak va New England)

Jamestown & Virginia (The Chesapeake):

Survival Struggles

Early settlers faced starvation and disease.

Smith noted that settlers were often "sick or discontented" and would rather

starve in idleness than work without constraint.

Shift to Agriculture

The severe lack of food and failure of early trade for

gold/precious metals forced later settlements to prioritize farming and agriculture

to ensure survival.

Native Relations

Relations were complex. While trade existed (e.g., exchanging

food for copper), it was often tense. Settlers "palisadoed" (fortified) their forts

against attacks.

The mayflower compact

This document created a "civil body politic" to

enact just laws for the general good. However, participation in this political body

was limited mostly to male church members.○

Religious orthodoxy

Puritan society was strict. Ministers like John Winthrop

held rigid views on religious conformity. Dissidents like Anne Hutchinson were

tried for "troubling the peace" and holding religious meetings in their homes,

which was considered unfitting for her sex.

Gender roles

Historical analysis suggests that despite regional differences

(longer life expectancy in New England vs. the South), women’s lives across all

colonies were defined by their roles as wives and mistresses of family farms.

Domestic order relied on "male authority and wifely submission"