Early American Colonial Regions

            By the seventeenth century, the Southern Colonies (Georgia, Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia), New England (Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire), and the Chesapeake region (Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey) had already developed into three distinct societies who, despite coming from the same mother country and bearing similarities, functioned as three separate regions. The regions of Colonial America all had distinctive cultures and economies that completely differed from the others. Religion and religious tolerance was completely different in each region, running from being free to complete persecution. Ethnicity and racial composition ranged from almost complete British descent to melting pot of backgrounds. Each region was politically and economically structured different and had its own identity. Each developed differently based on immigration trends, geography and other features. Throughout the colonization of Colonial America, the intentions of the settlers, the structure of the regions and the forms of governing developed distinctions in the development in the regions.
             Since all three regions were comprised of colonists from the same country, it is obvious that there should be aspects that the regions have in common. Differing from the trend of religious diversity since the commencement of British colonization, most of the colonists entering the New World were Protestant. Each region had some kind of self-government due to the fact that Britain was too far away from its colonies to maintain centralized control. The majority of the colonists were Europe's outcast, most of whom were looking to find political freedom and escape the fetters of European governments a new start for themselves. "Themselves" will prove to be vital in the future mindset of the American people. When the colonists landed in America and were introduced to harsh forests, Indians, unlimited land, and the chance to get rich, they developed an individualist "whatever I need to do to make a profit" attitude.