Chesapeake and New England Colonies - Term Paper Example

?Chesapeake and New England Colonies The Englishmen sailed the seas to discover the New World. Unlike the advancing civilization of Europe in the early 18th Century, the New World was still on the highly natural lifestyle, depending mostly on what the American soil has to offer. The Chesapeake region of the New World has its history as early as the Colonial America. It is composed of Virginia, Maryland, South and North New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The native people of Chesapeake depend highly on their staple food and other products of agriculture such as wheat and corn (Carr 342). It was not until the immigrants came when tobacco was planted and became the newest trend of economy. Early lifestyles of native Chesapeake inhabitants were affected by both geography and climate while social structure was imbalanced, especially that they had a shorter life expectancy. When Chesapeake became a British colony, there was no difference in terms of population growth. If it did, then it would be a lower life expectancy rate than those who were native settlers. The immigrants' life span was lowered to five years compared to that of the immigrants settling in Northern colonies. This is attributed to the immigrants' lack of immunity of the place's diseases such as malaria (Foner 16). Family life is well instilled in the early Chesapeake community. Children are trained to handle the family at an early age because parents die young. It is said that when a child turns 5, there is a 50 percent chance of losing a parent, or both parents (J. Volo and D. Volo). They were taught how to deal with familial responsibility such as taking care of their brothers and sisters and doing household chores. Their strong attachment to nature also influenced the natives’ belief system. As expected, they believe in supernatural and complex gods of nature. They attribute the weather, their harvest, and other natural events in general as the gods' reaction to their doings (Mountford). For example, if there is a storm, they would assume that the gods are not pleased with what they are doing. Another region in the colonial America is the New England colonies. While Chesapeake’s settlers had been living in the place ages before the formation of New England Colonies, the latter has a greater number of populations probably because they constitute more land area than the other or active economic ventures of the place. New England colonies include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Islands, and Connecticut. New England colonies were more improved compared to the Chesapeake region. They make use of land and aquatic agriculture and sell its products to other people. In the farming area however, they are not as blessed as Chesapeake of having fertile soil. Farmers are able to plant only one kind of crop because the climate is cold and the soil freezes at certain points of the year. When this time of the year comes, they would shift their means of living to fishing. Being near the Atlantic is advantageous for the people's sustenance because of abundant fish supply. Women are even part of the active economic cycle as merchants, selling home made goods such as soaps, candles and garments (“The New England”). The religious activities of the people in the New England Colonies are very formal and institutionalized. Unlike in Chesapeake, religious institutions such as the Quaker, Puritan, Baptist, Anglican, Jewish, Catholic, and Congregationalist were beginning to grow, influencing much of the social norms in that society (“Life in the 13 Colonies”). Like the Chesapeake family life, families in colonial New England are tight-knit and interdependent to each other. Parents follow a traditional child-rearing strategy, which was to give corporal punishment for children who disobey. Children are also expected to have "unquestioned obedience" to their parents (Wright n.pag.). The Chesapeake community and the New England colonies are different in various ways especially in religion, population, and economy. With the description of their lifestyles and means of survival, it can be said that New England is more fortunate than Chesapeake, although the latter may have good soil for planting. With these differences, it has the same cause--colonization. The Englishmen's arrival to the New World brought different changes which affected the native settler’s lives. Each region has the same colonizers with different intentions. The exploitation of resources in Chesapeake by its colonizers destroyed what the native settlers had established, while New England colonizers tried to replicate the advancing England. They established schools, religious institutions, and introduced the business economy rather than relying solely on harvest. In this way, they are able to surpass Chesapeake despite of their climate unfavorable for crop planting. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 The United States legal system is a model for most countries nowadays. In the colonial era, the nation was threatened by a possible disambiguation of the states to independent countries because of the series of rebellion. This inspired the gathering of the state’s most respected leaders and called it the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In the said convention, there were two proposals presented which shaped the current Federal law. The three branches of the government, which was imitated by various countries, were drafted by James Madison in the Virginia Plan. The branches are the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Each branch has its own role in the making, implementation, and governing the laws for the public. It also proposed for the assembly of Council of Revision which has the “veto acts of state and national legislation,” certain provisions for amending laws, and welcoming new states (Vile 15). The legislature acts as a bicameral body represented by the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Virginia Plan bestowed enough power to the legislative branch to take control of the national and interstate trade and laws. The second plan which had been discussed in the convention was the New Jersey Plan. Although the Virginia plan is noted for its use until the present time, the members of the convention preferred this plan over the other because it is in favor of the interest of small states and is more consistent with the Articles of the Confederation (Vile). The New Jersey Plan, however, is still related and is based on the proposals of the Virginia Plan, without the Council of Revision and the amending process. Unlike the previous proposal, the New Jersey plan gives more weight to the power of independent states as the primary implementer of national laws. It also gives the state leaders the independence to implement laws unique to them and impose taxes according to the needs of the state. In other words, the New Jersey plan gives jurisdictional independence compared to the Virginia plan who gives the sole right of ruling to the federal national government (“Virginia and New Jersey Plans”). The New Jersey plan was rejected by the convention. Because of this, representatives of the small states threatened to leave the convention and to become a separate nation. In reconciling the demands of the convention and the leaders of the small states, their independence, as proposed by the New Jersey plan was retained. The Great Compromise was contributed by Benjamin Franklin and was his last service to the U.S. (Bloom and Johnson 59). This compromise contains the law of having the two houses in the national congress--as mentioned in the Virginia plan. In the House of Representatives, states are given the right of having a representative to every 30,000 inhabitants. The Great Compromise deals with the population as a main determinant of the number of state representatives in Congress and the amount of direct taxes for each state. One of the members proposed that slaves should be counted as legal members of the population when it comes to deciding the number of representatives to the Congress but not about the direct taxes. This suggestion was largely opposed by the northern states. Because of this misunderstanding, James Madison proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise which states that for every five slaves of the states, they will represent three people of the state population as basis for both Congress representation and imposition of direct taxes. The last compromise made is centered on the “regulation of commerce” called the Commerce Compromise (Bloom and Johnson 61). In this compromise, contradicting economic interest of the delegates was addressed. Since each state has their own interest to protect such as the retention of slave trade and industry protection, the compromise gave the duty to the Congress in regulating "foreign and interstate commerce" (Bloom and Johnson 61). Additional taxes were added to each slave imported and in the overall exporting industry. The Constitutional Convention was a great turning point in the United States history of law and governance. Although the delegates went to the convention with different interests to protect, they were there for a single purpose and that is it to help the country remain united. There were opposing views during the convention but they were reconciled using the compromises. As observed, the solutions always meet half-way in a manner that no state interest would be compromised. Works Cited Bloom, Sol, and Lars Johnson. The Story of the Constitution. IL: Christian Liberty Press, 2001. Print. Carr, Lois Green. "Diversification in the Colonial Chesapeake: Somerset County, Maryland, in Comparative Perspective." Colonial Chesapeake Society. Eds. Lois Green Carr and Philip D. Morgan. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. 342-388. Print. Foner, Eric. The New American History. PA: Temple University Press, 1997. Print. "Life in the 13 Colonies: The 13 Colonies." Angelfire.com, n.d. Web. 04 Jul. 2011. . Mountford, Kent. "Faith of our Fathers: Religion and the Chesapeake." Chesapeake Bay Journal (1999): n. pag. Web. 04 Jul. 2011. . "New England Colonies." Mr. Hino’s Social Studies Class. Mike Hino, n.d. Web. 04 Jul. 2011. . Vile, John R. A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print. "Virginia and New Jersey Plans." Oracle ThinkQuest. Oracle ThinkQuest, n.d. Web. 04 Jul. 2011. . Volo, James M., and Dorothy Denneen Volo. Family Life in 17th and 18th Century America. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print. Wright, Mackenzie."What Was Family Life Like in Colonial New England?" eHow. eHow.com, n.d. Web. 04 Jul. 2011. . Read More