Politics and Government in Colonial America

1 Politics and Government in Colonial America

Background In order to understand the politics and governance methods that colonialists applied in the New England colonies better, it is imperative to first look at the founding of the colonies. At the heart of the founding of all the 13 New England colonies was the quest for religious freedom.

Although the colonists were quite unrelenting in their religious beliefs of how the Anglican Church should work, they still carried on with the same principles in the colonies. The only significant difference was that there was more decentralization of church operations. This paper looks at the significance of the origins of the colonialists, by examining how they ran their politics and governments within the colonies.

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Role of religion All the 13 colonies had their own independent governance structures in place. This remained the case until the founding of the United States in the wake of the American Revolution. However, one thing that was strikingly similar among the colonies was the responsibility of the church in both governance and politics. Churches effectively acted as de facto governments in some of the colonies (Samuel 2003, 7). The churches, such as those set up by the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay area, were self regulating and taxed the public so as to finance their operations. The importance of the churches further extended to policy and legislation. Eligible voters were registered at churches, and for one to be qualified to vote the church had to give a green light. In a nutshell, the colonies were Theocratic societies in which there were little distinctions between church and state (Samuel 2003, 15).

Allegiance to England Although the preamble to the foundation of the colonies was the disagreements between the colonists and the English Crown on religious issues, the colonies still maintained very close ties with the motherland. All residents in the colonies were subject to the rules and governance under the English Common Law practiced back in Europe. The colonies were also subject to taxation by the Crown (Samuel 2003, 10). The taxation issue was later to become the spark that set the American Revolution rolling. Since the colonies were, in effect, an extension of the British Empire in the New World, they were subject to the Crown’s foreign policy. For this reason, the Crown’s wars with France and Spain automatically meant that the Crown expected full support from its colonies.

Government structure

3 All 13 colonies had governments led by governors who were the executive representatives of the Crown in the colonies. The Governor was ably aided by a group of advisors dubbed the Governor’s Council. The members of the Council were appointed by the Governor but had to be approved by the Monarchy (Samuel 2003, 13). By having such a governance structure, the colonies, especially in their early days, were effectively under the control of the English Crown. For legislation, the colonies had general assemblies comprised of members who were elected by the public. In order to qualify as a voter in legislative polls, the resident had to be an enfranchised voter and a property owner. This effectively meant that it was only white settlers who were land owners who could vote or stand for elective office. The law was later changed so as to allow all free men to vote. The work of the assemblies was to pass legislation, and approve taxes and the budget, although the Governor’s Council had the final say in the assemblies’ legislation (Samuel 2003, 21).

Reference List Samuel, Charlie. 2003. Government and politics in colonial America: Primary sources of everyday life in colonial America. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.