30 July 1619: First Representative Assembly Meets in Jamestown
On July 30, 1619, the first representative legislative assembly in the American colonies convened in a church in Jamestown, Virginia. This modest gathering of 22 burgesses, as the representatives were called, established a precedent for self-government that would eventually flower into American democracy.
The Virginia General Assembly met at the request of the Virginia Company of London, which had founded the Jamestown colony in 1607. The companys new governor, Sir George Yeardley, arrived with instructions to establish a more participatory form of government to attract settlers and investment. The colony had struggled through its first dozen years, nearly collapsing from disease, starvation, and conflict with Native Americans, and the company hoped that giving colonists a voice in their own governance would improve conditions.
The assembly met in the choir of the Jamestown church, the only building large enough to accommodate the gathering. The burgesses were elected by the male settlers of each of the colonys eleven settlements and plantations. They sat with the governor and his appointed council, together forming a legislature that could pass laws, though these were subject to approval by the companys directors in London.
The first session lasted only six days, cut short by the oppressive August heat and an outbreak of illness that afflicted several members. Despite its brevity, the assembly passed laws on a range of subjects, including church attendance, relations with Native Americans, and the price of tobacco, the colonys economic lifeline. The burgesses also heard cases and settled disputes, establishing the assemblys judicial functions.
The significance of the 1619 assembly extended far beyond its immediate legislative accomplishments. It established the principle that English colonists in America would participate in making the laws that governed them, a right they would jealously guard for the next century and a half. When Parliament attempted to tax the colonies without representation in the 1760s and 1770s, Americans cited their long tradition of self-government as justification for resistance.
The Virginia General Assembly continues to meet today as the oldest continuous legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. Its founding in that Jamestown church represents one of the earliest steps on the long road to American independence and the democratic principles that would eventually reshape governments around the world.
