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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Dale quickly became outdated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.
