Penn And Smith's Influence On American Life

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From the moment settlers arrived on American soil, they realized the new frontier was no poor man's paradise. Instead, as they gazed from the shore into the vast wilderness before them, they saw only the toil survival in a virgin land required. Colonizing what is now the United States was a laborious and tedious task. Some of the first colonists were young men who came to the New World with a desire for adventure and seeking the excitement of "erecting Townes, peopling Countries... and [bringing] gaine to [their] Native mother-countrie" (Smith 132). Others, most famously the buckle-hat toting Pilgrims, came to New England to escape religious persecution and create a new life for themselves and their families. While the land was vast enough to support both …show more content…
While Penn focuses more on the gain of the community, Smith ostentatiously posits, "If a man worke but three dayes in seaven, he may get more then hee can spend" (Smith 133). In the version of New England he portrays to his audience, each person can create a luxurious life for himself with minimal work. The perpetuation of this lie caused This opinion likely arose during the years after hopeful colonists were drawn in by Smith, and people like him, and shocked by the harsh reality of life in an undeveloped land. Penn focuses far less on individual gain, and more on dispelling these rumors, and those of colonies causing economic decline in their mother countries. Instead, he wholeheartedly believes, "Colonies [are] the seeds of nations begun and nourished by the care of wise and populous countries"(Penn 74). More than half a century after Smith perpetuated untruths and deceived an eager audience into having lofty expectations for colonial life, Penn still believed the New World could be transformed into a productive
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