CHAPTER 5 • SECTION 2 The Magna Carta was the document that guaranteed English political and civil liberties. It limited the king’s power by guaranteeing rights to nobles and “freemen,” or those not bound to a master. Their property could not be seized by the king or his officials. They could not be taxed, unless a council More About . of prominent, or important and well-known, men agreed. They could not be put on trial based only on an official’s word, without witnesses. They could Taxation be punished only by a jury of their peers, people of the same social rank. One reason the nobles in England forced PRIMARY SOURCE King John to sign the Magna Carta was No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or because he had regularly increased taxes “ possessions, or exiled . nor will we proceed . against him . except and seized people’s land to help pay for by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. wars in Europe. The Magna Carta forced —Magna Carta, translated in A Documentary History of England ” the king to confer with representatives of the people about how much tax money the Over time, the rights promised by the Magna Carta were gradually government really needed to accomplish its expanded. One important right was the right to elect representatives to government. The Magna Carta protected the rights of the people and remains tasks. The same conflict over taxes would the foundation of modern American democracy. become a central issue in the American Revolution. Taxation remains an important issue today as citizens debate the need for and the amount of taxes to support the government. CONNECT Citizenship and History TRIAL BY JURY The Magna Carta promised that no free man would be punished for a CONNECT Citizenship and History crime without being judged by “his equals”. By the 1700s, this phrase had helped create a tradition of trial by jury in which jurors listen to the TRIAL BY JURY The definition of “peers” evidence presented in a court and then debate before coming to or equals in the jury system has created an agreement. many court cases over the years. One of Jurors are selected from various sources such as voting lists and tax the issues has been the racial composition rolls. The Constitution states that jurors in a criminal trial (one that determines the guilt or innocence of a person accused of a crime) must of the jury, especially in cases where the be neutral regarding the case. In addition, a juror must be selected from defendant has been African American and the community where the crime is supposed to have happened. Every the jury has been all white. Legal counsel juror is questioned by both defense and prosecuting lawyers, and either has the right to refuse any jury member lawyer may reject a juror if he/she feels the juror would not serve fairly. for any reason other than race, religion, or gender. Ask students what a jury of their peers might look like. (Their peers would Set Up a Mock Jury Trial likely be a reflection of their school class.) 1 Have one student accuse another of a crime and bring him or her to “trial.” 2 Let each student in your class write his or her name on a piece of paper and put the names in a hat. 3 Select twelve jurors. 4 Have the jurors listen to the evidence during the trial. 5 Let the jury discuss the evidence and then vote to determine if the See Citizenship Handbook, page 300. defendant is guilty or innocent. 138 Chapter 5 DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION Struggling Readers English Learners Paraphrase the Magna Carta Vocabulary: Roots Read aloud the first paragraph on this Note that the term Magna in Magna page describing the rights guaranteed Carta translates as “great.” Explain that by the Magna Carta. Pause to check “magni-” is a prefix in a variety of other students’ comprehension by asking them English words. Ask students to think of to paraphrase sentences or to define other examples. (magnificent, magnify, potentially troublesome words such as magnitude) Then discuss reasons why seized or bound. Then have students the Magna Carta was termed the “Great monitor their own comprehension of Charter.” (Possible Answer: It was an the rights by breaking them down into a important document—the first of its bulleted list. kind—in England.) 138 • Chapter 5 Parliament and Colonial Government Parliament, England’s lawmaking Connecting History CHAPTER 5 • SECTION 2 body, was the colonists’ model for representative government. Parliament had two houses. Members of the House of Commons were elected. Members Expanding Liberty Settlers in all the early of the House of Lords were nonelected nobles, judges, and clergy. colonies had quickly English colonists in America did not want to give up the right to repre- established representative Connecting History sentative government. Because the king and Parliament were too far away to government. See Chapter 3, manage every detail of the colonies, some self-government was allowed. In pp. 65–73. Expanding Liberty all the colonies, the colonists formed their own elected assemblies—smaller- scale versions of the House of Commons. Virginia’s House of Burgesses was Remind students that the House of the first of these. The assemblies imposed taxes and managed the colonies. Burgesses did not establish a true The relationship between the assemblies and Parliament was awkward. Answer: After the signing democracy, as only male landowners had Although Parliament granted the colonists some self-government, it retained of the Magna Carta in the right to vote. ultimate authority. The colonists disliked many of the laws that Parliament 1215, English rights were slowly strengthened. passed without their consent. Conflicts also arose when the king appointed By the 18th century, royal governors to rule some colonies on his behalf. These conflicts became colonists had the right more intense in the late 1600s. to elect representatives More About . to government and to be SEQUENCE EVENTS Describe how English rights were strengthened. tried by a jury. The Virginia House of Burgesses Twenty-two representatives from eleven English Rights Threatened boroughs and plantations along the KEY QUESTION How were colonial rights affected by political changes? James River were elected to the House of The political relationship between the assemblies and the English govern- Burgesses in July 1619. They met with the ment caused tension on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, the policies royal governor and a six-member council of some kings of England threatened the rights of Englishmen everywhere. appointed by the colonial proprietor (the Kings Limit Self-Government In the mid-1600s colonies like Virginia Company). Although their decisions Massachusetts were smuggling goods and ignoring the Navigation Acts. (See could be vetoed by the company in London, Why do you think Chapter 4.) When challenged, the people of Massachusetts claimed that the colonists resented an elected government body was unusual. England had no right to make laws for them. In response, King Charles II Governor Andros (shown Over the years, many well-known patriots canceled their charter. The charter had given the colony below)? served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the right of self-government. including George Washington, Thomas When Charles’s brother James became king in 1685, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. he wanted to strengthen royal power. He also changed the way the northern colonies were governed. James com- bined Massachusetts and the other Northern colonies into one Dominion of New England, ruled by governor Edmund Andros. Andros angered the colonists by ending Teach representative assemblies and limiting town meetings. With their assemblies outlawed, some colonists refused English Rights Threatened to pay taxes. Andros jailed the loudest protestors. At their trial, they were told, “You have no more privileges left you than not to be Sould [sold] for Slaves.” Reader, Recorder, Reporter The colonists sent Increase Mather to England to plead • Why did the people of Massachusetts think with King James. (See One American’s Story on page 135.) they could ignore the Navigation Acts? (They However, a revolution in England was underway that claimed England had no right to make laws changed the situation completely. for them.) • How did the Glorious Revolution in England Beginnings of an American Identity 139 affect government in the colonies? (When it established the English Bill of Rights, colonists claimed those political and personal rights.) INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES • Sequence Events How did the colonies and Parliament compromise after King James CONNECT to Art CONNECT to Language Arts fell? (Colonies gained the right to elect representatives but had to accept a governor Royal Governor Protest Posters Letter Protesting Andros’s Actions appointed by the crown.) Point out that Edmund Andros was actually Ask students to imagine they lived in arrested by people in the colonies when King the colonies at the time Andros ended James was deposed and that he often came into representative assemblies and limited the power conflict with colonial governments. Ask students of town meetings. Ask them to write a letter to prepare a protest poster against Andros and to a friend or relative in England in which they his actions. The poster should use words and describe their feelings about having some of images to graphically display his actions in their governmental power taken away. Students ending representative assemblies and limiting might refer to English rights, the Magna Carta, the power of town meetings. and so on, in their letters. Teacher’s Edition • 139.