Representative Governments During The Colonization Of North America

During the colonization of the Americas, much of the European social order underwent a drastic shift. The English colonies for North America lacked an established political structure when founded. Many of the colonies established representative government, religious tolerance, and equality to varying degrees because of this. During the 17th century, from 1607 to 1700, the colonies both expanded and retracted these liberties.
Many settlers of the New World aimed to institute representative governments with varying degrees of success. Over the ten years after Jamestown was established in 1607, the Virginia Company drew many settlers to America with promises of land. In 1619, it established the House of Burgesses based on England's Parliament.
Though in England and much of Europe these representative legislatures provided stability, in the colonies these houses provided exceedingly little security because of the colonies’ recent founding. In the fall of 1620, a group of Pilgrims arrived slightly outside of the Virginia Company’s jurisdiction and founded their own government. Initially, the Pilgrims simply elected a governor and conferred about matters at town meetings. However, as the Pilgrim population increased, they followed the model of Virginia Company and allowed land-owning men to elect representatives rather than meet and discuss every issue collectively. Massachusetts Bay, founded in 1630, functioned under the rules laid out in a charter. Urged by male landowners, however, the leaders allowed the men to have a more present voice in government in the form of the General Court. Shortly after, the Massachusett Bay colony shifted to a government made up of two representative houses and a governor. Most of the New England colonies considered a landowning man to be voting criteria, certain places, such as Pennsylvania, reserved that right for Christians.
The English looked down upon the spiritual practices of the natives. Since the founding of Jamestown, the colonists had little respect for the traditions of the natives and believed that as Europeans, they were superior. This attitude was representative of the larger attitude portrayed in later years. Few colonists, however, were invested enough to attempt converting the natives to Christianity. One individual, by the name of John Eliot, nonetheless did stove just that. Eliot established praying towns, where he fully immersed hundreds of natives in English culture. He insisted they disown their heritage in favor of the English customs he presented them with. Eliot’s towns, despite his best efforts, converted few ultimately, and most colonists settled for a strong distaste of native culture. Some sects of Christianity, such as the Puritans, were even less tolerant. The Puritans controlled many governments in Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Plymouth. To vote, one often had to be a member of the Puritan church. In addition, most of the laws were based on the Old Testament. People who did not closely adhere to the strict guidelines of the Puritans were often fined, humiliated, or killed. Some were banished, such as in the case of the Puritan Mistress Anne Hutchinson who secretly preached of a benevolent God. Despite the harsh Puritan beliefs, not all