How the Colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts Differ.
The colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia were located in separate regions of the New World and had many social and economic variations. The very laws and ideas these people have put into work are what have shaped America into the county it is today. When looking at these two colonies we know one thing is for sure, trade, land, religion, and natural resources were vital parts of their being. In this free-response essay I will contrast the colonies by how their societies were ran and how their economies affected their way of life. Before I discuss the differences in these two colonies, I would like to give you some background information on them. Massachusetts was a New England Colony founded by John Winthrop in 1628. King James the first founded Virginia in1607. The first colony of Virginia was Jamestown. Massachusetts’ first two communities, Boston and Salem, were developed around the same time. Both Virginia and Massachusetts were royal colonies. The economies of the colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia were centered around different resources, but each colony flourished in its own way. Virginia centered around the fact that land was plentiful, but labor was scarce. Many landowners had large portions of land but not enough workers to cultivate it. In Massachusetts, the land was not fertile so their economy centered around the fishing and ship making industries. Therefore, Massachusetts’s most profitable resources were timber and fishing. Land was less fertile in Massachusetts due to the harsh climate and short growing season. One thing that helped Massachusetts economy was that they could also take out the “middle man” when trading by using their own ships and merchants. Due to the fertile land in Virginia, their most profitable resource was tobacco. Virginia’s land was fertile due to the warm climate and immense rainfall. Virginia had plenty of staples to exchange for English goods. The Massachusetts colony had a lack of staples for exchange,