Click
here to try House of Burgesses Reading Comp. Exercise
(Grades 3 + )
As
the settlement of Jamestown became more successful,
the strict rules and harsh consequences doled
out by governors such as Thomas Dale quickly became
outdated and unnecessary. In 1619, George Yeardley
was elected the new governor of Virginia.
Yeardley's primary goal as governor was to ensure
that Virginians would have the same rights as
those living in England. Yeardley quickly established
the first representative government (officials
to represent the people) in the New World and
scheduled annual meetings in which laws and rules
based on popular will were formulated.
The
first meeting of the House of Burgesses (representative
government) occurred on July 30, 1619. The House
of Burgesses was made up of 22 men, 2 men representing
each of Virginia's
11 "plantations" or counties. The major
goal of the House of Burgesses was to change the
law as imposed by Thomas Dale. Yeardley signed off
on the changes which effectively ended martial law
in Jamestown and resulted in new found freedoms
among the settlers. The House of Burgesses effectively
represented the first form of democracy to ever
reign in the New World. It resulted in the formation
of new social and economic institutions such as
Virginia's
undemocratic slave-labor workforce.
