Southern and NE Comparison.

While religion played a much larger role in New England colonies than it did in the South, southern colonies were mainly economically based. Many New England colonies were founded solely for religious reasons. The Puritans created the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth in order to form a pure and elite society. Rhode Island was formed by Roger Williams to provide religious freedom to colonists of all kinds. Other colonies of New England either grew into the heavily religious Massachusetts Bay Colony, or were formed by explorers coming out of it. Economy was hardly a large factor in the colonies of New England.
Southern colonies, on the other hand, were largely based on the economy. Cash crops such as tobacco and rice formed plantations in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia. African Slaves were imported to these colonies due to the increasing amount of labor needed on plantations. Religion was a small and insignificant matter in the southern colonies.