The House of Burgesses, the first legislative assembly in the American colonies, held its first meeting in the choir at Jamestown Church in the summer of 1619. King James I, a believer in the divine right of monarchs, attempted to dissolve the assembly, but the Virginians would have none of it. They continued to meet on a yearly basis to decide local matters. The tradition established by the House of Burgesses was extremely important to colonial development. Each new English colony demanded its own legislature in turn.
Historians often ponder why the American Revolution was successful.
The French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions each ended with a rise to power of a leader more autocratic than the pre-revolutionary monarch. But starting with the Virginia House of Burgesses, Americans had 157 years to practice democracy. By the time of the Declaration of Independence, they were quite good at it. Click and drag the circled numbers onto the correct images. You can click any picture at any time to see an enlargement.