Even though most of the colonies on the eastern seaboard during the 17th century had English origin, each colony had its differences. The colonies of Chesapeake and Plymouth are two perfect examples. Each of the colonies had distinctive differences in their religion, government and economy. The Puritans were very devoted to their religion, but Chesapeake was very lenient and laid back.
These difference are very evident by what group of people founded the colony, views of worship, daily life, and the people they dealt with each day. The Puritans, who wanted to escape the Catholic Church, established Plymouth. Whereas, the people established the Chesapeake colony the Puritans were trying to escape, the Catholics. Chesapeake was a Catholic community. Due to the Puritans expectations of a Utopian society, their life was centered on the church and they did not except anything that wasn't Puritanism. The Chesapeake colonist did not view church centered life as an importance to their religion and they started an act for religious freedom. Which were two things that defied the Puritan way of life. The saints also controlled the matters in the church and were of abundance to the church. The Catholics had a shortage of religious leaders and had the vestries run the church. The Chesapeake colonists also had a very large tolerance for merchants. Where, the Puritans had strict religious rules concerning the merchants. Their distinctions in their economies might be a reason for the way each colony treated the merchants. .
Each colony had a different economic system due to their placement on the eastern coastline. Due to the lack of fertile land, the Puritans were forced to look a new direction for profit. They were lead to the beaver fur trade. Beaver fur was highly demanded in Europe, and the beaver population rapidly began to deplete. Soon the beavers became close to extinction. So, the Puritans went to lumberjacking.