The founder of each of the thirteen colonies each had a different perspective of life. They each set a goal to their own colony that they believed was important to society. Even tough all of the thirteen colonies had a goal not all of them pleased their founders expectancy. A lot of them came close to fulfilling it but only very few actually fulfilled it.
I believe that Virginia was the colony that came the closest to reaching its goal. Virginias goal was for trade and profits. It was founded as joint-stock company. Virginia was named for Elizabeth I of England. In 1584 Elizabeth gave permission to Sir Walter Raleigh to establish colonies in America but the expedition failed. In 1606 king James Chartered the Virginia Company of London for colonization. In 1607 Colonists of company established Jamestown, colony led by John Smith. John Rolfe began to raise tobacco in 1612. Tobacco exporting helped save the colony by giving people a way to support themselves.
Massachusetts Bay colony was set up for religious freedom for puritans. It established political freedom and a representative form of government. Their first code of laws was set up in 1641 knows as “The body of liberties.†The puritans purpose was to establish a ‘godly’ society. Their religion became known as congregationalism. The minister was the most important man in the colony, and no one was. allowed to vote unless a member of the church.
Maryland’s original purpose was to have religious freedom for Catholics. It was named for queen Henrietta Maria, wife of king Charles I. In 1632 Charles granted it to Cecilius Calvert who believed in religious freedom. In 1649 the colonial assembly approved Calverts draft of religious toleration. By 1654 William Clairborne led a group of protestant settlers and overthrew Calvert’s government. The puritan revolt lasted until 1658 when the Calvert family regained control and re-enacted the Toleration Act. During the persecution of Maryland Catholics by the Puritan revolutionary government, all of the original Catholic churches of southern Maryland were burned down. Later the government was aligned with the protestant church.
Both of the Carolinas goals were trade and profit. The colony of North Carolina was originally part of the province of Carolina which as chartered by eight proprietators. The province later became North Carolina. The division of the colony into North and the South was complete by 1712, although the same proprietors continued to control both colonies. Many of the settlers in the North Carolina colony were poor tobacco farmers who made their living off tobacco. In South Carolina, the farmer's plantations were much larger and the settlers grew rice, which made a lot of profits. People from South Carolina also grew Indigo which was a plant used to make a valuable blue dye for clothing and threads.
Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, March 4,1681 by king Charles II of England. It was established for religious freedom for Quakers, trade and profits. In 1701 William Penn signed the Charter of Privileges which granted individual right to inhabitants of Pennsylvania. For example Christians of any denomination were allowed to hold any governmental office. His policy attracted a heavy inflow of immigrants, and a mix of ethnic groups. By 1700 it was the third biggest and richest colony in the New World.
Georgia was the final colony founded by James Oglethorpe. He envisioned the province as a location for the resettlement of English debtors. Another purpose was to be a buffer between the Spain and England. He began negotiating with Indian tribes but he knew that the Spanish had a great influence on local tribes, so he found it necessary to get to an understanding with the natives. Georgia didn’t fulfill its goal because there was a war between Spain and England.
Overall most of the colonies did pretty good in trying to stick to their goal. But if I had to pick one I would still pick Virginia because its actually prospered and grew in every way.
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