Definition
Virginia's colonists elected the House of Burgesses in July 1619, and it became the first representative assembly in English America. In the 1700s only men who owned property could vote for it, and wealthy planters came to dominate it. It made laws and set taxes for the colony alongside the governor and his council, which gave Virginia's planters a long tradition of self-government. In 1774 the royal governor dissolved it, and its members went on meeting as the Virginia Convention, which in 1776 adopted a declaration of rights and a state constitution.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The House of Burgesses shows how colonial self-government worked and how far assemblies controlled taxes. During the long period of salutary neglect, assemblies like it grew used to getting their way, which helps explain why colonists resisted the new British taxes of the 1760s. In May 1765 it passed the Virginia Resolves against the Stamp Act, and in 1773 it proposed intercolonial committees of correspondence. Comparison questions ask students to set colonial governments side by side, such as Virginia's assembly and New England's town meetings, and to link assemblies to the rise of resistance.
Connections
- Stamp Act: it passed the Virginia Resolves against the tax in May 1765
- No taxation without representation: the Resolves stated that only the people's elected representatives could tax them
- Salutary neglect: loose British control let assemblies like this one grow used to getting their way
- Committees of Correspondence: in 1773 it organized intercolonial committees to share news of British actions