How did colonists govern themselves?

Colonists governed themselves primarily through colonial assemblies of elected representatives, supplemented by a royal or proprietary governor, an appointed council, and a system of local government in towns or counties. Every English colony had a representative legislature by the 1690s, beginning with the Virginia House of Burgesses, which first met at Jamestown on July 30, 1619 and is the oldest continuous legislative body in the Americas.

New England colonies built local government around town meetings, in which all eligible adult men could vote on local affairs at annual or special meetings, while electing representatives to a colonywide General Court such as the Massachusetts General Court created in 1632. The Mayflower Compact of November 11, 1620 had laid the model of a self-governing covenant, and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut of January 14, 1639 set out the first written constitution drafted by colonists in America.

Other colonies followed similar patterns. Pennsylvania had a unicameral assembly under William Penn's Frame of Government of 1682, Virginia had a bicameral legislature with the elected House of Burgesses and an appointed Council, New York had its General Assembly after 1683, and so on.

Voters in colonial America were generally adult white men who met property qualifications, ranging from owning 50 acres of land or paying taxes of a certain amount, depending on the colony. Free Black men sometimes voted in colonies including New Jersey, North Carolina, and New York, although laws varied; women voted in New Jersey from 1776 until the suffrage was restricted in 1807. Voter turnout among eligible men ranged widely.

The royal or proprietary governor represented the Crown and held veto power, command of militia, and patronage. Governors quarrelled regularly with the elected assemblies, especially over taxes and currency. The appointed council served as both an upper house of the legislature and as advisors to the governor.

Below the colony level, government varied. New England towns held meetings and elected selectmen, constables, and other officials annually. Southern colonies relied on county courts staffed by appointed justices of the peace, who acted as judges and administrators. Pennsylvania and the Middle colonies blended both approaches.

Colonial assemblies also developed important political habits. They claimed control of the purse, refusing to fund their governors' priorities until the governors agreed to legislative demands. They organized committees to draft laws, manage finances, and respond to executive vetoes. They communicated with each other through committees of correspondence after 1772.

By 1775 colonial leaders had decades of practical experience running representative legislatures, which equipped them to draft state constitutions and a national framework after independence.