The Puritans, therefore, developed a society that was based tremendously on conformity to a very specific method of devotion to God. One aspect of the Puritan religion was the interpretation of the Scripture to commend the creation of two different classes, or ranks. Those of the higher rank, the “Princes or Nobles of Elders,” (John Cotton, an original Puritan minister, 1636) will be allowed, “Heredity dignity or honours…also that the first rank…should have power, for them and their heirs, to come to parliaments and public assemblies…” Cotton rationalizes against the system of democracy by asking of the reader, or perhaps of himself: “If the people be governors, who shall be governed?” This system rendered religion and government irrevocably entwined; thus, the society that evolved in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was governed by the rules of Scripture and the Bible, as interpreted by those appointed to this higher rank.
In contrast, however, were the Virginian colonists. While the Puritans were self-sponsored and came completely of their own accord, the Virginians were sponsored by the Virginia Company of London as a political and economic endeavor. The Spanish colonies were not far to the South of the Chesapeake, and this geographic proximity was a political reason for the English to even be in the Chesapeake area at all, as they felt they needed to challenge the Spaniard settlement. However, the largest motivation for the English to settle in the Virginia area was economic. While Jamestown (the first settlement), was not an immediate success, as the Virginians learned agricultural techniques from the local Native Americans, the English soon became devoted to developing a large and prosperous crop. The primary crop cultivated was tobacco, which soon became the major export from Virginia.
In order to plant, grow, and harvest the tobacco while still making a profit, free labor was needed. This labor was first satisfied with indentured slaves from England, but because their term of slavery was only a few years and because they eventually obtained their own parcel of land (which created competition), a new solution was needed. The slave trade between Africa and the Americas soon developed. This trade was massive and hugely profitable in itself, but it was absolutely invaluable to the Virginians. Virginian Minister Peter Fontaine, in 1757, wrote of the slave trade, “…To live in Virginia without slaves in morally impossible…This, of course, draws us into the original sin and the curse of the country of purchasing slaves…”. Even looking at the demographic percentages of blacks and whites in 1740 gives a revealing look into how heavily the Chesapeake area depended on slavery: In Maryland, twenty percent of the population was black, and thirty-three percent of inhabitants of Virginia were as well. In the Carolinas, these figures are even more striking; in South Carolina, sixty-six percent of the population was black. One colonist living in Virginia in 1736 wrote to the Earl of Egremont that, “They import so many negro’s hither, that I fear this Colony will some time or other be confounded by the name of New Guinea.”
The impact of the huge dependence on slaves in the Chesapeake affected every aspect of life. Politically, because of the one-dimensional economy based on agriculture, Virginia and the Carolinas were run by whomever had the biggest plantation and the most slaves. According to Minister Fontaine, “…[inhabitants of Virginia] have no merchants, traders, or artificers of any sort but what have become planters in a short time.” This lack of multi-dimensionality, combined with the huge influx of foreign slave labor, created a large social gap within the colonies. Those who politically controlled the colony also controlled the economy; they had no reason to employ those who were not in control, because they could buy slaves to do the labor without pay. As a result, there was an entire class of people left out economically and politically. Bacon, a member of this class, wrote in his “Manifesto” to justify his rebellion, “Let us trace…[the] men in authority and favor to whose hands the dispensation of the country’s wealth has been committed. Let us observe the sudden rise of their estates…[compared] with the quality in which they first entered this country…”
Both groups of English settlers did display some similarities; both were divided into two distinct classes, and both were governed by a group who were either holier or wealthier, respectively. However, these similarities sprouted in much the same manner as their many differences did: the New Englanders and the Virginians emigrated for vastly different reasons, were sponsored differently, and established their particular societies using different systems. The societies, then, would inevitably grow in different directions; their distinct developments were facilitated by outside influences, but from the time their boats set sail from the English coast, they were bound for different societies.