A Main Contributing Factor to Limits on Colonial Unity

Wealth: A Main Contributing Factor to Limits on Colonial Unity Colonial America was a veritable melting pot of individuals of all nations fused into a new race of men whose labors and posterity would shape the future. Legends about America painted the picture of a land unsoiled and pure, an asylum, and a venture at a new beginning for all who desired it. But those who fled from their home countries were met with a more realistic landscape, and were unprepared for the bleak ruggedness of unexplored territories. Soon colonies formed on rocky foundations and prospered into stable communities. Nevertheless, the metamorphosis from a group of colonies to an independent country was not an easy one. Before the thirteen colonies could merge, forming the United States, they experienced hardships and barriers to forming a cohesive union. The distribution of wealth within the colonies, competition for money and differences in assets between the colonies, and failed attempts at unification were all limiting factors of colonial convergence. It seems quite clear that class lines hardened throughout the colonial period. The distinction between rich and poor became sharper. A study of colonial New England showed that the poor numbers continuously rose, and the wandering poor were an inevitable fact of life in the mid-1700s (Zinn 50). In this lopsided concentration of wealth, the rich were high and eminent in power and dignity. They imitated the upper class of England in their mansions, horse-drawn sedans, magnificent portraits, periwigs and rich food (Zinn 36). In 1678 a petition from Deerfield Massachusetts to the Massachusetts General Court proudly illuminated the way the upper class dominated society. You may be pleased to know that the very principle and the best of the land; the best for the soile; the best for situation; as laying in yer center and middle of the town; and as to quantity, near half belongs u...