Question 1:
Motives and life contrasts between the New England colonies and those in Virginia
The new England colonies were formed on religious basis rather than on an economic basis as was the case in the colonies in Virginia. Puritans, whom formed part of the new England colony, established a political and social movement which focused on religious recommendations of unity towards a similar objective. This happened despite the political, economic or social position occupied by any of their members; progress of all being their main focus. The colonies in Virginia had a contrary perspective where individualism was considered more efficient than communalism. The latter state experienced prosperity through increased land holdings and rise in prices of commodities such as tobacco. Wealthy men, among them William Byrd II and Landon Carter experienced wealth and obtained self-mastery and communicated as they enslaved the poor (Sage, 2020). According to Puritans, man would earn grace by being dedicated and working hard regardless of his status. In the contrary, colonies in Virginia considered money and status important hence stressed on individualism to earn self-glory.
The new England settlers portrayed similarities with the Virginian colonies on their relationship with the native settlers for various reasons. Both the new England settlers and the new settlers in Virginia needed land for settlement. They both oppressed people of African origin. Virginians enslaved them while New England people displaced them. They recognized African subjects by focusing on their names, accents, languages and skills (Nelson, 2020). Virginian new settlers’ need for land resulted to establishment of an incentive to push away the native settlers to occupy the land themselves. Similarly, the new England settlers were pushed by their urge to possess land into removing Indian natives other than espousing them.
Question 2:
William Simmonds’ document contains apparent information concerning the settler native-relations, social conditions within the Virginia colony and Virginian settlers’ attitude towards the native people. The ill-motives of land and property grabbing by new settlers in Virginia against the hardworking native settlers are addressed in this document. It is stated here that the initial settlers took care of the land and facilitated to its prosperity before the new settlers took it from them. They manured the land and brought to that perfection (Oxford, 2012). The new settlers harvested from the labor of initial settlers; not paying single cost to the same. It is then deduced that could the people in Virginia labor on their own hands, they could not produce huge profit. The probable profit from their personal efforts are estimated to have been lesser than what they took from the initial settlers.
To sum up, the colonies in the New England and Virginia depicted differences based on religion, social and political views. However, their interaction with the native settlers in their new settlements was similar in that they both pushed away the initial settlers to settle on that land themselves.
References
Grey-Sage, S. (2020). Mastery and Material Culture in Colonial Virginia (Doctoral dissertation).
Nelson, C. A. (2020) A “Tone of Voice Peculiar to New-England” Fugitive Slave Advertisements and the Heterogeneity of Enslaved People of African Descent in Eighteenth-Century Quebec. Current Anthropology, 61(S22), S000-S000.
William Simmonds, The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia Since Their First Beginning (Oxford, 1612).
