House of Burgesses

Background

The House of Burgesses was the first hint of representative self-government in America. The Virginians assembled with the permission of the London Company in 1619. After James I dislike for Virginia grew, however, he distrusted this assembly and called it a “seminary of sedition.”
This falls under foreign and domestic policy because it created laws for the colony. It also falls under changes in American Culture and Identity because the colonists started seeing themselves as separate from England.


Significance

• First semblance of self-government in America.
• Born in Virginia.