American History - Dissertation Example

Virginia and Massachusetts had almost diametrically opposed foundings in terms of their position. They represent the difference between South and North, Puritan and business, slave-owning and free, civic society and individual society. Virginia was intended to be an agricultural production zone. Like most of the South, after the failures at Jamestown, it became a major agricultural producer. Mismanagement caused by the economic incentives, poor coordination with the natives who knew the area better, and other factors doomed the initial settlements lose tens of thousands of people.

Ultimately, the discovery of tobacco allowed Virginia to prosper. The documents of incorporation for Virginia show that it was always intended as a business venture, chartered by the queen for profit, and not a fully fledged colony. This would help lead to the Revolutionary War, as the British felt that their colonists were generally British citizens who just happened to be making money for them and not fully-fledged colonists. Puritans in Massachusetts, meanwhile, wanted to create a utopian community, one free from evil and un-Christianity, a shining light on the hill for the world.

The Mayflower Compact illustrates a desire to have some kind of localized democracy, but it's important to note that in many ways Massachussetts would be called undemocratic now, because of its radical religious interpretations and punishments for defiance. The distinction between them played out in establishing much of the course of American history. In the North like Massachusetts, civil society and integration due to closely connected cities would create a different culture from the South where farmers spent a lot of their time apart and civil society was far less powerful.

The North did not have slaves, but it did participate in the slave trade; the Southerners bought slaves. The South was always envisioned as an agricultural belt, while the North became mercantile then capitalist and industrialist due to their values of diligent work, as Weber pointed out in his analysis of Protestant work ethics and capitalism.