In matters like religion and politics Chesapeake colonies were very different from New England Colonies. For example, the established church in Virginia was English church, which meant that taxpayers supported church whether or not they shared its views. However there were some things that were carrying resemblance to English, for example, the structure of colonial government. Government, which had to be of royal blood, appointed justices who were in charge of setting tax rates and controlled public works such as building roads and bridges.

By 1700 the colonies in Virginia built their wealth on tobacco trade. Cultivating tobacco was one of the most profitable businesses back in the days, which Maryland and North and South Carolinas quickly adopted. Tobacco was the foundation for Virginia and Maryland economies. The riverbanks were the most common as well as the most convenient locations for plantations mainly because of rich soil and transportation accessibility. Town development, however, was very slow, due to the fact that wealthy planters liked to build wharves on Chesapeake, in order to ship tobacco to England. So while England was developing more and more towns, cities and villages with surrounding farms, Maryland and Virginia were more likely to be described as a land with large plantations and minimum urban development.

To ensure that all plantations were being cultivated planters brought large numbers of English workers in order to grow the crop. Most of those servants came with a contract and were young men. Furthermore, land lords received land for each indentured servant they had, so by the 1700 there were more than one hundred and ten thousand servants that arrived to Chesapeake. Obviously due to the emphasis on indentured labor, there were barely any women who settled in Chesapeake. This fact along with a number of diseased that took lives of newborns as well as adults resulted in slow population growth. After fulfilling all obligations required by the contract the servants were let free. But it did them little good, as the Chesapeake region offered no opportunities to independent servants. Even if the former servant had a small capital necessary for growing tobacco, he would never go large with this business and would be lucky to have enough to support his family. So as the number of contracted servants grew smaller because of lack of opportunities for advancement and cruel and harsh treatment, they were all gradually replaced by African slaves.