The liberal immigration policies of Great Britain resulted in a population increase of English settlers in Virginia. By the mid-1700s, the English colonies grew from approximately one-thousand people, in the early 1600s, located in just Jamestown to a large 1.5 million people covering territory all throughout America. By now, English colonies were not only populated by Britain's artisans, tradesmen, and middle-class farmers, but also by many merchants and Conquistadors of the French and Spanish immigrants. However, the unwillingness to assimilate in the early 1600s by the French and Spanish colonies, led to the British population dominating the English colonies by the mid-1700s. The result of England’s vast empire led to the English way of …show more content…
Now understanding that most of the English colonies were populated by the British, it is understandable that most American settlers considered themselves Christian. During the time that settlers were moving from England to the North American colonies, England's most practiced religions were Catholicism and Protestantism. While Atheism was becoming popular in the mid-1700s in France, the small amount of French settlers was not enough to influence a significant population of the English colonies. Though religion was important to England in the time that settlers were coming to America, the original American settlers initially came to Jamestown out of British imperialism. Because religion was not the initial reason for travel in the early 1600s, the southern colonies had liberal tendencies, like some religious freedom such as the Toleration Act of Maryland. Though the Church of England dominated most of the southern colonies, the role religion had in politics and economy was minor. New England was established by John Smith in 1620 when Pilgrim leader, William Bradford, led the separatists to the Massachusetts Bay to avoid religious persecution in England. By this effect, most of the New England was Puritan and …show more content…
As previously stated, the initial reason for establishing the southern colonies was mainly for profit or expansion for trade. Therefore, a large part of their economy was built on the cash-crop, tobacco. Slaves were the social norm of the southern colonies of the mid-1700s largely because of economics. Extra help was needed to run the wealthy, white man's’ plantation. Like the southern colonies, the economy of the middle colonies was built off of trade. However, crops did not thrive in the middle colonies, like they did in the southern, making their economy consist mainly of farming, fishing, and lumbering. Unlike the southern colonies, slaves were not as commonly used. Indentured servants were paid to help with the extra farm labor. The reason being that the middle colonies were home to a diverse population of people. The inhabitants consisted of a large range of Europeans, Native Americans, and African Americans made free by the Quaker Meeting in 1688. This meeting, in Pennsylvania, issued the first American antislavery proclamation. However it was not until the 1750s that this was adapted all throughout the middle colonies. Unlike the southern colonies, New England colonies had a struggling economy. Because this region was not established for imperialism and the economy was initially subsidiary, they struggled with growing crops for trade do to poor soil. However, by the late-1700s, the New England