Government Vs Colonial Government

Colonial government wasn’t so different from how it is now. Sure, we’ve changed some things, but we still have a baseline from way back when. Today, we still have a legislative, executive, and judicial branch.
In the legislative branch they had something in England called ‘Parliament’. Basically Congress but with a different name. Just like Congress, Parliament was a bicameral legislature, a lawmaking body made of two houses. However, in Jamestown the houses were called House of Burgesses and Council of State. Sound familiar? The House of Burgesses was similar to our House of Representatives where colonists elected them. Voting rights were different though, and only land owning men of certain religion could vote. They were elected by the men
The main executive leader was the monarch of England, the king or queen. Then there were governors who were in charge of the colony they got from a charter granted by the monarch and the Privy Council. You see, the king or queen were, again, too far away in England to effectively rule the colonies and had to appoint more leaders over in America. It’s like our government today. We have a president and then we have governors in each state. However, we don’t have nearly as many problems as they did today (wink, wink). The monarch of England, James II came into power and felt the colonies were becoming too independent and weren’t going to listen to England anymore. So, he set the Dominion of New England which appointed a new governor to rule the New England colonies and keep them in line. He also limited town meetings, preventing riots and get togethers to overthrow him. Furthermore, James II wasn’t granting any charters to the New World and the English people got mad. They wanted to start their own charters for a new life! Finally, after years of letting this strict monarch lead, the people of England got so fed up they overthrew him in what is now called the Glorious Revolution. The English Bill of Rights was created in 1689 and ensured a monarch could never again hold so much power. They took power away from the executive branch and gave it to the legislative branch. In the colonies they also overthrew their leader, Sir Edmund Andros,
You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say or do, can and will be used against you in a court of law. Okay, okay. The colonial courts were very much the same as they are now. They had a judge and a jury, a group of peers. The court could sometimes be influenced by royal officials like the monarchs. What you don’t see now days though, are the stocks, the punishment for a crime. You had to stand, hunched over, in the town square, and be ridiculed for your actions, humiliated all day. Another form of the judicial branch were the town meetings, or county meetings down South. A select group of officials could gather and discuss local issues, like paying for schools and ownership and use of unsettled lands. These were like our city meetings only now everyone in the community are allowed to attend. These usually occurred one or more times a year. The greatest change that has influenced our government today all started with a man named John Peter Zenger. He spoke out against the governor and was charged with libel, a false statement that damages a person's reputation. He was put in court and though the judge found him guilty, the jury deemed him not guilty. Remember when I said that the judges were sometimes influenced by royal officials? Perhaps the judge was a bit biased. John helped pass part of the First Amendment, the freedom of press by speaking