Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - American History Development of VA vs Mass Development of VA vs Mass A colonist’s primary goal in traveling to the New World was escaping economic depression by seeking new fortunes elsewhere. Most members of the Virginia Company came to the New World with hopes of finding gold and capitalizing on lucrative trade opportunities. Economic gain was also on the minds of Massachusetts Bay Company members, but more central in their motives for leaving was to avoid the religious persecution that threatened their lives in England. A meager living and religious persecution brought many Puritans to Massachusetts. The proprietors of Massachusetts came to New England to form a holy commonwealth of religious people. The Puritans, as they were known, settled with the hopes that they could still reform the Church of England. This goal earned them the name Non-Separating Congregationalists. Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company were the leaders of the Great Migration. The first settlers saw 80,000 more religious people of a variety of faiths fleeing persecution and depression to come to New England and other English colonies in the New World. Religious colonists founded Universities such as Princeton and Brown primarily as training facilities for clergy. The governing system of Massachusetts evolved out of the religious roots of its settlers. Before setting sail for the New World, Governor John Winthrop saw a loophole in the colony’s charter that would allow him to transfer complete control of the colony to the New World. This realization allowed Winthrop to convince settlers to go with him to the New World. Once in Massachusetts the General Court consisted of an elected governor, assistants, and shareholders called freemen. The colony’s first difficulties arose out of religious men seeking to be freemen. Winthrop conceded but saw that freemen would have little power in decisions of consequence. It wasn’t until the Watertown protest of 1632 that freemen were given power to elect the governor and assistants. Freemen also discovered that the colony’s charter gave the power to pass laws and levy taxes to the General Court, a secret Winthrop had kept from the freemen. The General Court in turn became a representative group with two or three representatives in the Council for each town. This local representation was characteristic of the landholding patterns of Massachusetts. A great emphasis was placed on religion, not wealth, in the colony. This meant that land was primarily for necessity of survival, not for personal gain. As demonstrated by a dispute, religious solemnity did not always prevail. After a small dispute startled the assistants making them realize they could easily be out voted, the Massachusetts General Council became a bicameral assembly. Each house now requiring a majority vote to pass legislation. The creation of the bicameral legislature did not change the original charter for the colony. The implementation of the charter, however, was quite different than the original arrangement. Settlement was not part of the Virginia Company’s vocabulary. They were there for gold, not to become farmers. But a return trip to England being costly the company settled at Jamestown at a northwestern bend in the James River where they thought an East Asian passage might lay. Religion, unlike in Massachusetts, was not a pillar of existence. Landholding patterns in Virginia were spread out with plantation owners possessing large tracts of land keeping them miles and sometimes forests away from neighbors. Because of this situation it made gathering for services on a Sunday a difficult proposition as many residents did not even know their neighbors, and they feared travel at risk of Indian attack. The acquisition of land was primarily dictated by the governmental organization of the colony. Virginia began with a council intended to govern the colony. The plan quickly dissolved and a governor ruled with a strictly advisory council. Few original settlers survived two harsh winters and an interim governor Sir Thomas Gates took control of a new Jamestown and new settlements at Henrico. Dale’s Code, named for its primary enforcer, was imposed as a method of living essential for survival in the fledgling colony. Dale’s Code lasted for eight years until the population was more secure and the laws were relaxed allowing a representative assembly to convene for the first time in 1619. Assemblies ruled continually with a few interruptions until the Revolution. The assemblies dominated by landowners made it progressively more difficult for others to gain land. Lenient policies of early Virginia brought numerous land owning hopefuls to the colony. Propositions allowing indentures to take their own land after seven years and then a 1618 decree allowing anyone coming to Virginia to own 50 acres of land spiked the population. While land was plentiful at first forests frightened settlers and tightened western borders due to Indian attacks making fertile land limited and valuable. Less land made for more homeless people squatting on private lands causing divisiveness between them and the landowners leading to Bacon’s rebellion. The bloody attacks on Indians by the poor instigated the assembly to take action against the rebels. An unexpected result of the rebellion was to open new lands to the rich and affirmation of the power of the councilmen. Virginia and Massachusetts both became self-sufficient colonies in the late 17th century. The paths that brought them to that point were different. Rich landowners dominated social life and government in Virginia suppressing Indians, servants, and the poor in their pursuit of lucrative tobacco trade. Lawmakers in Massachusetts were focused on religious freedoms of its citizens, permitting that they were of the “right” religious conviction, in its drive toward self-support. Bibliography: Word Count: 926
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