USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The House of Burgesses (1619-1776 CE) was the first English representative government in North America, established in July 1619 CE, for the purpose of passing laws and maintaining order in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia and the other settlements that had grown up around it.

Detailed explanation-2: -The House of Burgesses also set the tax rates for the colony, which gave it strong economic control. When the House took over the tax rates and, thus, took control of the colony’s economy, it helped the House once again become an influential branch of the colony’s government.

Detailed explanation-3: -The colonists drew upon their claims to traditional English rights and insisted on raising their own representative assemblies. Such was the case with the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first popularly elected legislative body in the New World.

Detailed explanation-4: -[it] included a system of self government which included the capacity for the colonists to select their own representatives to govern… [and] pass their own laws.” The House of Burgesses demonstrated the seeds of Christian self-government as the foundation for effective self-governing bodies.