Document 1 Maryland’s Act of Toleration (1649)
… be it therefore with the advice and consent of this assembly ordered and enacted…
that no person or persons within Maryland professing to believe in any form of
Christianity shall from now on be in any way troubled, interfered with or embarrassed
in respect to his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof…
Document 2 Voting Qualifications (Requirements) (1763)
COLONY
RELIGION
RACE
GENDER
PROPERTY
NEW HAMPSHIRE
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND VALUED AT $50
MASSACHUSETTS
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND RENTED AT $2/YEAR
RHODE ISLAND
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND RENTED AT $2/YEAR
CONNECTICUT
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND RENTED AT $2/YEAR
NEW YORK
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND VALUED AT $40
NEW JERSEY
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
LAND VALUED AT $50
PENNSYLVANIA
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
50 ACRES OR LAND VALUED
AT $50
MALE
50 ACRES OR LAND VALUED
AT $40
MALE
50 ACRES OR LAND VALUED
AT $40
DELAWARE
MARYLAND
CHRISTIAN
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
WHITE
25 ACRES WITH A HOUSE
VIRGINIA
CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
OR 100 ACRES WITHOT
NORTH CAROLIINA CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
50 ACRES
SOUTH CAROLIINA CHRISTIAN
WHITE
MALE
50 ACRES OR LAND RENTED
AT $2/YEAR
GEORGIA
WHITE
MALE
50 ACRES
CHRISTIAN
Document 3 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)
“….It is ordered that there be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts…and a governor
shall be chosen for the year and shall have power to administer justice according to the
laws here established. The choice for governor shall be made by all those who are
eligible to vote…
“…It is ordered that no person be chosen governor more than once, in two years…
“It is ordered that every General Court shall include the governor, to moderate the
court… and if the governor neglects or refuses to call the General Court into session, the
voters may do so…. In the General Court shall rest supreme power of the colony, and they
only shall have power to make laws or repeal them, to levy taxes, dispose of unclaimed
land; they shall have the power to call public officials or any other person into question
for any misdemeanor and may with good reason remove or deal otherwise accordingly with
the offender…”
Document 4 Title Page from The Lady’s Law
Document 4 Title Page from The Lady’s Law
Document 5 The Plan of a Slave Ship
Document 5 (continued) Slave Codes of South Carolina 1740
South Carolina Slave Code, 1740
5. And it shall be further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any slave who shall
be out of the house or plantation where such slave shall live, or shall be usually employed,
or without some whiter person in company with such slave, shall refuse to submit or
undergo the examination of any white person, it shall be lawful for any such white person
to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave; and if any such slave shall
assault and strike such white person, such slave may be lawfully killed.
6. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any
Negro or other slave, who shall be employed in the lawful business or service of his
master, owner, overseer, or other person having charge of such slave, shall be beaten,
bruised, maimed or disabled by any person or persons not having sufficient cause or
lawful authority for so doing, (of which cause the justices of the peace, respectively,
may judge,) every person and persons so offending, shall, for every such offence, forfeit
and pay the sum of forty shillings, current money, over and besides the damages
hereinafter mentioned, to the use of the poor of that parish in which such offence shall
be committed;
And if such slave or slaves shall be maimed or disabled by such beating, from
performing his or her work, such person and persons so offending, shall also forfeit and
pay to the owner or owners of such slaves, the sum of fifteen shillings, current money,
per diem, for every day of his lost time, and also the charge of the cure of such slave;
and if the said damages, in whole, shall not exceed the sum of twenty pounds, current
money, the same shall , upon lawful proof thereof made, be recoverable before any one
of his Majesty's justices of the peace, in the save way and manner as debts are
recoverable by the Act for the trial of small and mean causes; and such justices before
whom the same shall be recovered, shall have power to commit the offender or
offenders to goal, if he, she or they shall produce no goods of which the said penalty and
damages may be levied, there to remain without bail, until such penalty and damages shall
be paid; any law statute, usage or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.
Document 6 Virginia House of Burgesses
This engraving is from the first meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.
This legislature (law maker) was made up of representatives chosen by the people.
Eventually, each colony in America would have a legislature.
Document 6 Virginia House of Burgesses (second image)
Document 7 Mayflower Compact
Source: The Mayflower Compact. November 11, 1620
. . . We whose names are underwritten. . . Having undertaken, for the
Glory of God and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the
Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in
the northern part of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and
mutually in the prescience of God, and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better
ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and
by virtue here of, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal
laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time,
as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of
the colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape
Cod the eleventh of November, in the reign of our Sovereign Lord King
James. . .the fifty-fourth Anno Domini, 1620.