In what ways did the English colonization of North America differ from Spanish colonization of Mexico and South America?

The Spanish were pioneers in colonialism, so the English were able to learn from their mistakes. As such, the English colonization of North America took a somewhat different turn to what the Spanish had been doing further south. The English colonial project was a largely private initiative. King James was required to give his blessing for the Jamestown settlement, but the responsibility for organizing and establishing the English colonial venture fell upon the Virginia Company, as did the financial risks involved.
Contrast this with how the Spanish went about establishing their own colonies. Successive Spanish monarchs were actively involved in the colonial project, which they saw as analogous to the Reconquista, when the Spanish successfully drove the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. This unleashed a toxic combination of xenophobia and religious fanaticism that soon found its way to Spain's South American colonies. The Spanish looked upon the indigenous people as heathen savages who needed to be converted to Christianity—specifically, Catholic Christianity. The racial superiority that the conquistadors felt toward their new colonial subjects led to ruthless exploitation and suffering among the indigenous population on a massive scale.
The English were more concerned than the Spanish about colonizing lands rather than simply conquering them. They did not just travel to North America to conquer and exploit the land as the Spanish had done with South America, they wanted to establish long-term settlements. As English colonization was carried out on the initiative of a number of different private companies, the North American colonies each developed their own distinct identity—from Puritan Massachusetts to Catholic Maryland—making them a relative haven for those fleeing religious persecution back home.
In South America, however, the Spanish state was involved in every last detail of the colonial venture, including the strict imposition of religious uniformity. Catholicism was to be the only accepted faith in the Spanish New World, and many of the indigenous people were forcibly converted to the faith, often on pain of death.