Compare and Contrast Northern and Southern Colonies

Both the New England colonies and the Southern colonies seemed as though they might be the same. They both started out with the majority of people being from England, they were both in the New World, and they were both ruled by England but, as time went on this theory was proven wrong. The New England colonies and the Southern colonies had many common characteristics but these two regions were very different geographically, politically, and socially.

Geographically the New England colonies were the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire; the Southern colonies were Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. These two regions were on opposite sides of America so naturally, they had different climates. The Southern colonies were very hot while New England was cooler; the hot weather made life in the south much harsher and the death expectancy was ten years shorter than that of New England. Many people in the North lived longer because of the cleaner water and the cooler temperatures which slowed down the spreading of diseases. Although New England was cooler, the soil was not fertile; therefore the economy of New England was run by manufacturing. Such things as trade, lumber and fishing were the primary source of income. In the South, agriculture was very important; the staple crops were tobacco and rice and the Southern colonies were largely considered the plantation colonies. The geography of the colonies was a fundamental key to how the region developed and how the economy was characterized

Because many of the settlers living in the South were planters this had a great effect on the social structure of the South. At the top of this four part structure were the plantation owners, after which were the middle class farmers, second to last were the indentured servants who were people who worked their way in America to pay for their passage, and at the very bottom of the social ladder were the black slaves. Slaves contributed to much of the population of the South, in fact in South Carolina slaves outnumbered settlers two to one. In New England, however, because of the lack of need for labor there were very few black slaves and everyone was relatively equal. A large difference between New England and the Southern colonies is that when people moved to the New England regions many of them came in communities and families. In the South because of the many individuals, there was a shortage of women and therefore population did not grow as quickly. This expansion of cities in the New England colonies led to the founding of primary and secondary schools for education. Harvard College in Massachusetts was founded eighty-six years before the first college in Virginia. In the South, the few and spread out cities led to a slow development of schools and many children had tutors instead of attending school. These two very different social structures developed the character of the regions.

As these colonies began to grow there became a need for a government and the two regions approached this in different ways. The Southern colonies prohibited taxes unless they were enforced by the grand assembly while New Englanders