English Precedents.

It is vital when studying colonial history to recognize that the American provinces descended from and were still part of a rich Old World past. It is a mistake to automatically place the colonies into a single English context. Colonies such as New York and Florida had their beginnings with the Dutch and Spanish respectively. Many non-English settlers—German, French, Swiss, etc., populated much of the American landscape. Of course, the thousands of slaves living throughout the colonies did not have an English past. Yet, notwithstanding the rich ethnicity, one finds when examining the government and politics of the overall scene that by the mid to late seventeenth century a predominant English presence existed. Subjects pertinent to provincial and local government such as legal administrative structures (courts, judges, juries), law enforcement offices (sheriffs, constables, watches), legislative bodies (councils and assemblies), executives (governors), town, borough, and county...