American Political Background

English Come to North America•Settlers came to the Americas in search

of: wealth, religious freedom, and land ownership

•First “Americans” faced brutal winters, disease, droughts and other unanticipated disasters

•Furthermore, North America was already inhabited by Native Americans, Spanish, and French colonists

The original 13 Colonies• 1. The thirteen colonies were colonies of what

country? • 2. Which colony was farthest north? • 3. Which colony was farthest south? • 4. The colonies were bounded by the

Appalachian Mountains on the west. What ocean bordered the colonies on the east?

• 5. The oldest colony was Virginia (founded in 1607). Which colony was just south of Virginia?

• 6. The colony of Virginia contained what are now the states of Virginia and West Virginia. What colony bordered Virginia to the northeast?

• 7. The colony of Massachusetts was composed of what are now the states of Massachusetts and Maine. What colony was between the two parts of Massachusetts?

• 8. What colony was located east of Connecticut? • 9. The colony of New York contained what are

now the states of Vermont and New York. What two colonies bordered the colony of New York on the south?

• 10. In what year did the 13 colonies declare their independence from Britain?

Reasons for Leaving England•England could not offer the same opportunities of

wealth, land ownership, and religious freedom•Feudalism was a rigid social and political

hierarchy based on land ownership that was restricted to few

•Land ownership was an opportunity for all in the New World

•Others came to seek religious freedom from their church and wanted to limit membership to the settlers who they thought god had chosen

Settlers Bring the Seeds of Self-rule•3 Key Documents:

1) The Magna Carta (1215) declared the people could not be deprived of their lives, liberty or property except “by the lawful judgement of their peers, or by the law of the land.”

2) The Petition of Right (1628) declared the king was subject to the same laws as the people

Settlers Bring the Seeds of Self-rule3) The English Bill of Rights (1689)

• Right to trial by jury• Freedom from excessive bail or fines• Right to keep arms• Freedom from cruel/unusual punishment• Right to petition the government• Freedom from speech and debate with

parliament

Key Concepts•Limited Government provides

restrictions on what government can do. A government with limited powers cannot take certain individuals rights

•Representative Government should serve the will of the people and there demands will more likely be heard

Participation in Colonial Government•Each colony set its own voting rules, basing those

rules on such factors as property, religion, gender, and race:

I. Property qualifications for voting required that all voters be property owners and or tax payers (didn’t exclude as many in the colonies as it did back in England)

II. Religious qualifications for voting required voters to meet moral or religious standards more so than property-owning or taxpaying standards in the earliest days of colonial government. (Restrictions of church & state began to separate in the late 1600’s)

Participation in Colonial GovernmentIII. Women were not officially excluded from political

participation in America until the revolution. In England, they could occasionally vote if they owned property and if there were no males in their households (i.e. widows).

IV. African Americans and the institution of slavery did not flourish until around 1670 when English colonists from Barbados settled in South Carolina. The colonies required tremendous amounts of cheap labor to produce raw goods for trade with England. Therefore, they developed a legal framework to regulate slavery and deny them access to political power (property ownership, voting, and other rights).