Essay: Goals of the founders of the Jamestown/Massachusetts Bay/Plymouth Colony

PART 2: (1 x 50 points) The essay needs to be as long as it takes for you to FULLY answer the question.  There is no set minimum or maximum number of pages.
Also, do not simply drop names as though we know that you know who these people or places or things are.  Be sure to define everything. Write the essay as though you are explaining the answer to someone who did not take this course and who, therefore, may not know what you’re talking about.
1.    What were the goals of the founders of the Jamestown Colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Plymouth Colony? How did they go about achieving these goals? Were they successful? Consider dividing your answer into individual paragraphs for each colony. Use specific evidence to support your answer.
The British colonization of America was full of trial and error. Many colonies established in New England, such as the eerie Roanoke settlement, were failures. Each colony was established had different goals and desires and likewise, had different ways of achieving those goals. Varying from economic success to freedom from religious persecution, the colonies of Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, and Plymouth all varied in success.
The colony of Jamestown in modern-day Virginia was a product of the Virginia Company; a joint-stock company in which English investors would pool money to invest in new settlements being formed in the Americas in the hopes that the land ’s natural resources would gain them massive profits. Therefore, from the beginning, the goal of Jamestown was to make money. Due to the success the Spanish had finding gold in other parts of the Americas, the Virginia Company assumed there would be gold across all of the Americas. In preparation for the mass amounts of gold the settlement was anticipated, many of the settlers to come to Jamestown were jewelers and metalsmiths. When it became apparent that gold was not as abundant as anticipated, this left the colony to their own devices as far as survival. The abundance of craftsmen in this colony meant very little knew how to do agricultural work that was necessary for survival. According to Captain John Smith, who later took leadership over the colony, most of the men “would rather starve than work.” Unfortunately, many of these men did. Due to the poor farming conditions, lack of effort on the part of the colonists, and the diseases spread through the mosquitoes of the swampy area, over half of the Jamestown colonists died in the first nine months. When John Smith took over Jamestown, he implemented stricter working regulations and attempted diplomacy with the Indians. The relations between the settlers and the Powhatan improved through trade of weapons and furs, and with the assistance of the Indians, Jamestown was able to survive another winter. However, this improvement was short-lived, as in 1609 supplies were lost at sea and therefore dissolved the positive relations with the Powhatan. The colony entered a disgusting famine that at some points resulted in cannibalism. The “starving time” winter of 1609-1610 killed off all but 60 colonists. While the colony was near failure, one final saving grace revived Jamestown, tobacco. In 1617 the first Virginia tobacco crops were sent to Europe and they took over the continent by storm. To cope with the demand, the headright system was introduced. This system promised land to workers who settled in Virginia to farm tobacco. With this extra labor, thousands and eventually millions of pounds of tobacco were being exported annually from Virginia.  Jamestown sought out riches, and although they were wildly unsuccessful when it came to the gold they had assumed would make them rich, tobacco unexpectedly made Jamestown an incredibly wealthy and successful colony.
In 1630, a Puritan colony known as Massachusetts Bay was founded. Similarly to Jamestown, the colony was a product of another joint-stock company, the Massachusetts Bay Company. However the goal of this colony was not financial gain, it was religious freedom. In 1629, English monarch James I dismissed Parliament and gave Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, permission to tighten royal control over the church. Due to his anti-puritan views, he dismissed any minister who showed even a semblance of Puritan ideals. The increasing royal hatred of the Puritans was growing more and more worrisome for them, and in that same year 1,000 Puritans fled to America and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The main goal of the colony was to be, as the first elected governor of Massachusetts Bay John Winthrop said, “a city on a hill.” Meaning that the colony’s ambition was to be an example to all of England (and the rest of the world) of how a colony should be run and how to lead a godly life. Even though the colony’s goals were strictly religious (unlike the Jamestown Colony) they understood that they would not be successful if they did not establish themselves economically. The soil in the New England area was unsuitable for crops, so the colonists took advantage of the natural resources around them. Lumber and grain mills were established, a fishing industry began, and lumber not exported was used to build ships. Since the colony was formed near the coast, a harbor was established and trade began to boom. Due to this economic success, more settlers were eager to relocate to Massachusetts Bay and with the steady stream of colonists came a steady stream of supplies. In all the economic bustle the colony did not forget its religious roots and ran itself similar to a theocracy. Only freemen (male churchgoers) could hold office or vote for the higher positions of governor, deputy governor, and assistants. The purpose of the government was to enforce God’s laws, so above all, God was the highest power of this colony. In conclusion, the success of Massachusetts Bay is relative. Economically, they were highly successful, however, that was not their primary goal. The goal of Massachusetts Bay was religious freedom, and to be an example to all mankind. While the colony secured the freedom to practice their Puritan views, any person who had a difference in opinion (such as Roger Williams, founder of Providence) was exiled from the colony, negating their claim of religious freedom. In addition, a godly lifestyle is based on opinion, so it may vary from person to person on how close the Massachusetts Bay came to creating a model society. Overall, the colony was successful in their own endeavors but were hypocritical in their mission.
Similarly to Massachusetts Bay, the settlement of Plymouth was also based on religious freedom. When Queen Elizabeth deemed the Anglican church the official church of England during her reign, radical protestants were very unhappy. They felt the church, though Protestant, still was too similar to the Catholic church of Rome and needed to be purified. Unlike their Massachusetts Bay counterparts, the Plymouth settlers known as Separatists, wasted no time waiting for their religious conditions to worsen and fled to Holland in 1608. After residing with the Dutch for 12 years, the Separatists felt too out of touch with English culture and decided to create their own colony. A charter was soon secured by the Virginia Company, and 100 pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and set sail for a settlement near the mouth of the Hudson River. However, a storm blew the ship farther north than intended and the pilgrims settled in New England near modern-day Plymouth Bay. Due to being blown so far off course, the pilgrims believed their new settlement would be outside the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company and drew up a contract called the Mayflower Compact to plan their colony. The compact detailed the ideals of modern American democracy, granting men the right to participate in the enactment of laws and entitled them to just and equal treatment. Similar to Massachusetts Bay, governors, such as William Bradford, were elected by the freemen (male churchgoers), usually during town-hall-like meetings. The first few months of the Plymouth settlement, however, were extremely rough. Over half of the pilgrims died in the first winter due to being unfamiliar with the terrain. This confusion did not last though as in the following spring the settlers met an English speaking Indian named Squanto who assisted them with crop growing and other survival skills. The crop yield became so successful that during the harvest of 1621 a large feast, now traditionally known as Thanksgiving, was held. Part of the small success of the colony was rooted in their amicable relations with the Indians. They built a small economy based on lumber, fur, and fishing, however, their colony never grew above 1,000 settlers. Eventually, in 1650, Plymouth merged with Massachusetts Bay. So how successful was Plymouth? It can be argued that their success is only as good as Massachusetts Bay’s. The colony itself never boomed into the large success Massachusetts Bay or Jamestown was. So it can be argued in that sense that Plymouth was relatively unsuccessful. However, the Pilgrims only goal was religious freedom, and even as they merged into the other Puritan settlement of Massachusetts Bay, they were able to maintain that goal. Therefore, in its roots, Plymouth was successful in its original goal of religious freedom.
Every American colony came with its own backstory, hardships, and successes. The financial successes of Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay created the foundation of the American economy. And the religious freedom attained by Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth set a precedent for modern American rights and freedoms. Each colony’s success varies as much as their goals do. However, Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, and Plymouth all were successful in making their mark in American history.