An exploration of the interests that the English had when settling the North America Continent reveals that the establishment and development of Virginia and Massachusetts in 1607 and 1620 respectively stemmed from different causes. The Virginia Company of London and the Massachusetts Bay Company granted passages for English immigrants while hoping that each group would establish a settlement that would benefit the Monarch in one way or another. As one would expect with the acquisition of territories outside the mother country, the new areas held potential for the people of Britain from the personal to national levels. In other words, the expectations of the individuals that made up both companies revolved around the economic opportunities, political freedom, and social rights that were unavailable in the rigid societies of Britain. To that end, an exploration of the establishment and development of the Jamestown Colony of Virginia and that of Plymouth in Massachusetts reveals that, while both settlements were under the English Crown, there were considerable differences between the two.
Foremost, while the immigrating English settlers voiced different desires at their arrival in North America, the motivations behind settling Virginia and Massachusetts were similar as they both stemmed from change. After all, when a person agrees to leave his or her home for an unknown land that lacks any form of civilization, there must be a good reason that most likely originates from the region with which he or she is familiar. In that sense, because the colonists were yet to know the new lands, their reasons for departing Britain must have come from the mother country. The goals of the original settlers provide evidence to the given claim. The Pilgrims in Plymouth desired a “pure and primitive life” away from the religious turmoil of the English communities (Nash et.al 47). Later, the arrival of the Puritans was also because of the need for change as the reformers did not support the “changes sweeping across Europe” in the years leading to their arrival (Nash et.al 45). Similarly, the Virginia colony was the outcome of people seeking economic prospects that the situation in the mother country did not allow. Apparently, an estimated one-third of the first three groups of settlers in Virginia were gold-seeking adventurers, “unskilled servants” and persons with criminal backgrounds (Nash et.al 38). In the case of gold seekers, the journey to North America was purely for riches; however, for those who lacked proper skills and held criminal records, it is most probable that they were unable to find any meaningful employment. Either way, the Virginia and Massachusetts settlers were after some change in their situation.
Still, while they provide the foundations on which the establishments of the two colonies were similar, the given similarity also provided the grounds on which differences emerged. On one hand, it is evident that the settlement of Jamestown Virginia was for wealth purposes that were to benefit the settlers and the mother country. For that reason, it was “French silk artisans, Italian glassmakers, [and] Polish potash burners” that made up the original group that arrived in the region (Nash et.al 38). All of the given professions needed already available raw materials for any products, and nobody in the mentioned group had the skills to work from the bottom-up. In other words, just as glassmakers cannot use the land as farmers would, only particular professions allow one to work the earth and benefit from it even when soil is the only available supply. Thus, for people journeying to new regions in which only native tribes resided, the Virginia Company of London sent ill-prepared individuals based on misplaced assumptions of North America as an easily habitable land with much gold (Nash et.al 40). Concurrently, the commercial trading relations that they sought to have with the Indian tribes that inhabited the continent were also impossible simply because the two communities were different and vying for the same territories and limited resources. Thus said, without the ability to utilize the land to their advantage, the highborn English settlers of Virginia proved incompetent and weak in the harsh environment of North America.
On the other hand, Plymouth settlers harbored different expectations when they arrived in Massachusetts. Initially made up of Pilgrims, the first group was not only unprepared for the harsh living conditions in the colonies but also unequipped for the settling process. Notably, the settlement of Virginia took place thirteen years before that of Massachusetts and as a result, Jamestown colonists acted as guides for the new arrivals. The problem with that arrangement was the fact that the encouragement given to Plymouth settlers was misleading as it downplayed the harsh environmental conditions of the continent (Nash et.al 47). The initial Plymouth settlement expectedly faced challenges because they lacked the right resources. Later, the Puritans’ arrival in Massachusetts was a different matter altogether since they not only encouraged the colonists to work hard as a way of serving God but also dismantled the ideologies of social classes and considered the Indian tribes as communities in need of religious guidance (Nash et.al 46). Thus, the Pilgrim’s situation was similar to that of the high-class individuals that arrived in Virginia because both factions did not have the necessary skills and resources to work for their survival in the new lands. However, the case of the Puritans made the two settlements different just because while they harbored the desire for religious reformations, they also encouraged the people to toil for food and endurance. Evidently, the new plans worked because the Puritans were successful in laying the foundations on which self-governance emerged in the British colonies of North America. After all, the Puritans advocated the ideologies of individuals operating as freely as possible so they could exploit “opportunities and personal potentials” without any hindrances (Nash et.al 46). Subsequently, in 1636 and a mere sixteen years after the Puritans’ arrival, Massachusetts opened the doors of Harvard College and began the development of universities in the British colonies.
In conclusion, the original English settlers of Massachusetts and Virginia differed on multiple grounds just because they harbored different interests when deciding to move to North America. They ought to have realized that the land and the natives were hard to subdue.
Works Cited
Gary B. Nash, Julie Roy Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F. Davis, Allan M. Winkler, Charlene Mires, Carla Gardina Pestana. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 7th. Vol. Combined Volume. New Jersey: Pearson, 2010.
