To the southern plantations were lured those to whom land-owning
offered not only a means of livelihood but social distinction. As word
was brought back of the prosperity of the great estates and of the
limitless areas awaiting cultivation, it tempted in substantial
numbers those who were dissatisfied with their lot: the yeoman who saw
no escape from the limitations of his class, either for himself or for
his children; the younger son who disdained trade but was too poor to
keep up family pretensions; professional men, lawyers, and doctors,
even clergymen, who were ambitious to become landed gentlemen; all
these felt the irresistible call of the New World.
The northern colonies were, on the other hand, settled by townfolk, by
that sturdy middle class which had wedged its way socially between the
aristocracy and the peasantry, which asserted itself politically in
the Cromwellian Commonwealth and later became the industrial master of
trade and manufacture. These hard-headed dissenters founded New
England. They built towns and almost immediately developed a
profitable trade and manufacture. With a goodly sprinkling of
university men among them, they soon had a college of their own.
Indeed, Harvard graduated its first class as early as 1642.
Supplementing these pioneers, came mechanics and artisans eager to
better their condition.
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