Influences on Early Colonists

            The beginnings of American self government was present due to necessity and desire combined. The colonists considered themselves English and drew many ideas from what they already knew, including the English Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta.

            The logistics of governing a people from across the Atlantic Ocean is not easy by any means. Letters took months to arrive at the New World. Plus, the nobles and king often had little idea of how life in the colonies was. This lack of understanding and delay in communications made self-government necessary. One of the earliest legislative councils set up was the House of Burgesses. The men of the colony elected the men on the council.

            The philosopher John Locke, a popular writer at the time, heavily influenced these colonists. The educated men of Jamestown had read the liberal Locke and many were taken by his ideas of individualism and self-government for a happy life.

            Two documents from an earlier time in England were very influential on the colonists. As English citizens they were of the opinion, despite geographical location, that the writings applied to them. The Magna Carta was a contract that made the King follow certain rules pertaining to the treatment of his subjects. It gave them rather more control in the government by way of representatives. The English Bill of Rights was a more personal document in the way it directed the individual people of England. It bestowed undeniable rights to common everyday people. The goal of this was to make sure nobles and future monarchs couldn’t abuse their power on people less influential.

            The people of the early colonies found ways to establish a powerbase and a way of doing things that benefitted them, rather than England as a whole.  They gained their ideas from the previous free thinkers and events in their own history.