Governing the Colonies

Governing the Colonies

Students will be able to examine the relationship between the colonies and England in terms of government.

Why It Matters:

• The New England, the Middle, and the Southern colonies developed in some unique ways. But they were all English colonies, and they, therefore, shared a common English heritage.

Focus Question: 

• How did English ideas about government and trade affect the colonies?

Multiple Choice

Before we begin - Where did the majority of the people living in the 13 colonies come from?

• France

• Spain

• England

• They were already there

Multiple Choice

Before we begin - Who was the mother country to the 13 colonies?

• France

• England

• Spain

The English Parliamentary Tradition 

• The English colonists brought with them the idea that they had political rights. This idea was rooted in English history.

• So, the colonists believed they had certain rights because they came to the Americas from England

Magna Carta

In 1215, English nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, the Latin name meaning “great charter.” The Magna Carta was the first document to place restrictions on an English ruler’s power. It limited the monarch’s right to levy (collect) taxes without consulting the nobles. It also protected the right to own private property and guaranteed the right to trial by jury: The rights listed in the Magna Carta were at first limited to nobles. Over time, the rights were extended to all English citizens.

Primary Source - Magna Carta

“31. Neither we nor our [officials] shall take, for our castles or for any other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will of the owner of that wood. . . . 39. No free man shall be taken or imprisoned . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.” —Magna Carta

Multiple Select

What was the purpose of the Magna Carta?

• To give the King of England even more power than he had before

• To limit the power of the king

• To protect some rights of the English people

Parliament

Under the Magna Carta, nobles formed a Great Council to advise the king. This body developed into the English Parliament (PAHR luh mehnt). Parliament was a two-house legislature. A legislature is a group of people who have the power to make laws. Parliament’s greatest power was the right to approve new taxes. No king could raise taxes without the consent of Parliament. This power gave Parliament a degree of control over the king.

Parliament meets to make new laws. Remember Parliament is a group of people who come together to make laws, not laws made by one person, (a king).

Representative Government

Parliament is an example of a representative government.

In all representative governments, the people choose a person to represent them and their interests. The representative speaks for the people who voted for them and helps make laws and rules based on what the people need.

Multiple Choice

In a representative government

• many people work together to create rules and laws

• one person creates all of the rules and laws

English Bill of Rights 

• An event in 1688 further boosted parliamentary power. Parliament removed King James II from the throne and invited his daughter Mary and her husband William to rule. This was called the Glorious Revolution. In 1689, King William and Queen Mary signed the English Bill of Rights. A bill of rights is a written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect.

These selections from the English Bill of Rights deal with the powers of Parliament:

• “That levying money for or to the use of the crown . . . without grant of Parliament . . . is illegal; . . . That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with the consent of Parliament, is against the law; . . . That election of members of Parliament ought to be free; That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached [challenged] or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.”

English Bill of Rights Continued...

English Bill of Rights restated many of the rights granted by the Magna Carta, such as trial by jury. It upheld habeas corpus, the ithat a person cannot be held in prison without being charged with a specific crime. Finally, the Bill of Rights required that Parliament meet regularly and declared that no monarch could levy taxes or raise an army without the consent of Parliament.

English Bill of Rights

• English Bill of Rights restated many of the rights granted by the Magna Carta, such as trial by jury.

• It upheld habeas corpus, the principle that a person cannot be held in prison without being charged with a specific crime.

• Finally, the Bill of Rights required that Parliament meet regularly and declared that no monarch could levy taxes or raise an army without the consent of Parliament.

Open Ended

What political rights had England’s citizens won by 1688?

List at least three rights.

Open Ended

Why do you think people living in the 13 colonies believed they were entitled to those rights?

Colonial Self-Government 

The legal rights that Englishmen had won over the centuries led the colonists to expect a voice in their government. The ideas of limited monarchy and representative government were dear to them. In their new land, colonists wanted to take part in governing themselves.

Multiple Choice

Self Government means....

• The king of England made laws for the colonists

• The colonists made laws for themselves

Colonial Legislatures

A legislature is a group of people who are responsible for making laws. From 1619 the Virginia Company allowed the House of Burgesses to make laws for the Jamestown Colony. The House of Burgesses became the first legislature in British North America.

On the other hand, the British government gave William Penn outright ownership of Pennsylvania. The governor and a large council made laws that an assembly could only approve or reject. But the Pennsylvania colonists wanted to draw up laws themselves. In 1701, they forced Penn to agree that only the General Assembly could make laws. The king could overturn laws passed by the General Assembly, but neither Penn nor his council had any part in lawmaking.

Other Examples of Self Government in the Colonies

• Mayflower Compact - set rules for the Pilgrims to govern themselves when they arrive in the colonies, not the king.

• New England Town Meetings - meetings that allowed for all residents in a town to voice their opinions on laws

Multiple Select

Which of the following are examples of colonial self-government

• New England Town Meetings

• King George the 3rd of England making laws for the colonists

• Mayflower Compact

• House of Burgesses

Royal Governors

While each of the colonies was experimenting with self-government, each still had a royal governor who was appointed by the English King to keep watch over each other colonies.

Self Government in the colonies had a couple of major ideas in common

• Many people worked together to create laws within each of the colonies, these were representative governments, no one person was in charge of making the laws.

• Even though the King of England was respected in each colony, the colonists believed they should be able to self govern, or make laws for themselves.

• By 1760, every British colony in North America had a legislature of some kind. However, the legislatures still argued at times with the colonial governors appointed by the king, but England generally leave the colonies alone!