Government in the Colonies

​All the colonies were settled with the permission of the king of England. For each colony, the king issued a charter, a formal document that outlined the colony's geographic boundaries and specified how it would be governed. 

Because the colonies were so far from England, however, they needed to be able to make their own laws and keep peace and order (self-government).

​Most of the colonies developed different forms of government depending on the settlement's purpose. Within most of these colonies, colonists elected members of their community to a general assembly, which made their laws.

Many colonies also had a governor appointed by the king. As the king's representative, the governor could overrule the elected assembly. Some colonies also had councils, or groups of men who represented the English businessmen whose money helped to fund the colony's creation.

In Massachusetts, religious colonists established a theocracy, a government based upon religious principles and whose leaders rule in the name of God.

In time, however, a system of town meetings emerged in which colonists voted for representatives to govern them.

In many ways, the colonies were more democratic than England. Still, not all colonists had a voice in the government. Usually, only free, white, landowning men were allowed to vote.



In some colonies, voters also had to belong to the preferred church.



Other colonists— including women, servants, enslaved people, and skilled tradespeople who were not landowners—had no voting rights.