Colonial Governments

Over time the political, economic, and cultural roots between Great Britain and the colonies became more complex and different interests within the empire competed, but the colonials maintained control of most of their economic activities, despite the King’s implementation of the Acts of Trade.  Soon colonials began to associate this economic freedom with the political rights of self-government.

The colonials set up their own governments to take care of their local needs. Each colony had a bicameral legislature except Pennsylvania, which retained a unicameral legislative body. Each colony used one of three main types of self-government:

In eight out of the thirteen colonies, the King appointed the governor and the members of the upper house. Land owning, wealthy colonists chose the members of the lower house. In the proprietary colonies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, the King had given the land to a proprietor, an individual gifted land for service to the crown. He made the governmental appointments. In the corporate colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut, wealthy, land owning white men elected all governmental posts.

Colonial assemblies nurtured political innovation and republican ideas about government and liberty and as they grew stronger, some colonists began thinking about what kinds of people should rule.  This questioning led colonial elites to pay more attention to the average citizen, especially their demands within the political process.

Voting and Representation

The colonial governments modeled themselves after the English system with two exceptions:

• Voting was more widespread in the colonies than it had ever been in England. It was not that the colonials were any more egalitarian, a man still had to own property to vote, it was just that property was much more easily obtained in the New World.
• The colonials repudiated the British concept of “virtual representation.” In England, elected members of parliament supposedly represented all their constituents. British parliament members believed that they understood and represented the colonists’ interests, despite the fact that most of them had never even been to the Americas. The colonists disagreed, wanting to elect their own people to sit in Parliament in England.

The colonial legislatures ruled locally and enjoyed a great deal of freedom, drafting legislation that worked for them where they lived. The King allowed this political autonomy as long as none of the laws interfered with English ones. Local assemblies proved adept at taking care of themselves, and they held great power, often because the governors appointed by the King were incompetent men, some never even left England. Could you vote if you lived in Colonial America? Fill in the ballot below to find out.