Answer:
New England: poor soil, rocky
, clean air (10+ years of life)
Chesapeake: -soil used up from excess
, tobacco farming
, -"American Wilderness"
New England is geographically north of the Chesapeake and therefore came with cooler temperatures and cleaner water, slowing the spread of disease. The air quality was improved over that of Old England so much that moving to New England alone added ten years of life alone. Agriculture was not a viable industry due to both the cold and the rocky condition of the soil. In contrast to the local indian tribes who would take care of the forest to preserve it’s produce, New Englanders would clear out large patches of forest and use the land to their complete advantage.
In the Chesapeake region the land that they had was very important to them because it was such a farming industry. They needed the good soil that it had for all the tobacco farming; however, due to the intense farming this eventually destroyed the usable soil. The climate was a warm, swampy region that was great for year round harvests but also perfect to harvest disease such as malaria, dysentery, and typhoid.
People who moved to New England often moved in families as opposed to single men. Couples were wed early and had large amounts of children; the family was a stressed value in the New England lifestyle. New England was also said to have invented the concept of “grandparents.” People lived long enough here that grandparents could give guidance to both their children and grandchildren as opposed to the Chesapeake where people didn’t live long enough to be a grandparent. The low pre-marital pregnancy rates reflected on the stability of families, and any couple who would divorce would often be ordered to return to each other by the authorities. Towns which had more than fifty families would be required to set up a school house, which led to a high literacy rate.
The way of life for many people in the Chesapeake was brutal and for some hard to survive. When the first settlers arrived in the Chesapeake they were struck hard with disease and sickness which brought the life expectancy down by 10 to 15 years. Also farming was a huge part of the Chesapeake life. The demand for tobacco was so great that farmers were often forced to plant tobacco to sell before food to eat.
New England: pastures instead of farms
, fishing & ship building
, couldn't grow crops
Chesapeake: very happy tobacco industry which brought in rare need
for slaves
, In 1600s indentured servants were being replaces by black
slaves
