Editing Thirteen Colonies (section)

===Political culture ===
Settlers did not come to the American colonies with the intention of creating a democratic system; yet they quickly created a broad electorate. The 13 colonies had no hereditary aristocrats as in Europe. There were no rich gentry who owned all the farmland and rented it out to tenants, as in England and in the Dutch settlements in upstate New York. Instead there was a political system of local control that was governed by men elected in fair elections. The colonies offered a broader base than Britain or indeed any other country. Any property owner could vote for members of the lower house of the legislature. Governors were appointed in London but colonists elected the governor in Connecticut and Rhode Island.<ref name="Robert">{{Cite book |last=Dinkin |first=Robert J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3uGAAAAMAAJ |title=Voting in Provincial America: A Study of Elections in the Thirteen Colonies, 1689–1776 |date=1977 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-8371-9543-8 |location=Westport, CN |page=45 |oclc=3186037}}</ref> Women, children, indentured servants, and slaves were subsumed under the interest of the family head and did not have a vote or a voice. Indians and free blacks were politically outside the system and usually could not vote. Voters were required to hold an "interest" in society; as the South Carolina legislature said in 1716, "it is necessary and reasonable, that none but such persons will have an interest in the Province should be capable to elect members of the Commons House of Assembly".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Statutes at Large of South Carolina: Acts, 1685–1716 |date=1837 |editor-last=Cooper |editor-first=Thomas |page=688 |editor-last2=McCord |editor-first2=David James}}</ref> The main legal criterion for having an "interest" was ownership of real estate. In Britain, 19 out of 20 men were controlled politically by their landlords. London insisted on this requirement for the colonies, telling governors to exclude from the ballot men who were not freeholders—that is, those who did not own land. However, in most places good farmland was cheap and so widely owned that 50% to 80% of the men were eligible to vote.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keyssar |first=Alexander |url=https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/keyssar_-_part_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009000000/https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/keyssar_-_part_1.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=The Right to Vote |date=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-02968-X |location= York |pages=5–8 |access-date=2022-05-03}} [https://archive.org/details/righttovote00alex Alt URL]</ref>

According to historian Donald Radcliffe:<blockquote> The right to vote had always been extraordinarily widespread—at least among adult white males--even before the country gained its independence....Enfranchisement varied greatly by location. There certainly were communities, particularly newly settled communities where land was inexpensive, in which 70 or 80 percent of all white men were enfranchised. Yet there were also locales...where the percentages were far lower, closer to 40 or 50 percent....On the whole, the franchise was far more widespread than it was in England, yet as the revolution approached, the rate of property ownership was falling, and the proportion of adult white males who were eligible to vote was probably less than 60 percent.<ref>Donald Ratcliffe,  "The right to vote and the rise of democracy, 1787—1828." ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 33.2 (2013): 219–254, quoting pp 219–220; [http://jer.pennpress.org/media/26167/sampleArt22.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602005114/https://jer.pennpress.org/media/26167/sampleArt22.pdf |date=June 2, 2023 }}</ref> </blockquote>

The colonial political culture emphasized deference, so that local notables were the men who ran and were chosen. But sometimes they competed with each other and had to appeal to the common man for votes. There were no political parties, and would-be legislators formed ad hoc coalitions of their families, friends, and neighbors. Election day brought in all the men from the countryside to the county seat or town center to make merry, politick, shake hands with the grandees, meet old friends, and hear the speeches—all the while toasting, eating, treating, tippling, and gambling. They voted by shouting their choice to the clerk, as supporters cheered or booed. In Virginia candidate George Washington spent £39 for treats for his supporters. The candidates knew that they had to "swill the planters with bumbo" (rum). Elections were carnivals where all men were equal for one day and traditional restraints were relaxed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tully |first=Alan |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470998496 |title=A Companion to Colonial America |date=2003 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=0-631-21011-3 |editor-last=Vickers |editor-first=Daniel |location=Malden, MA |page=300 |chapter=Colonial Politics |doi=10.1002/9780470998496.ch12 |oclc=50072292 |access-date=2022-05-03}}</ref>

Voting was voluntary and typically about half the men eligible to vote turned out on election day. Turnout was usually higher in Pennsylvania and New York, where long-standing factions based on ethnic and religious groups mobilized supporters at a higher rate. New York and Rhode Island developed long-lasting two-faction systems that held together for years at the colony level, but they did not reach into local affairs. The factions were based on the personalities of a few leaders and an array of family connections, and they had little basis in policy or ideology. Elsewhere the political scene was in a constant whirl, based on personality rather than long-lived factions or serious disputes on issues.<ref name="Robert" />

The colonies were independent of one other before 1774; indeed, all the colonies began as separate and unique settlements or plantations. Further, efforts had failed to form a colonial union through the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754 led by [[Benjamin Franklin]]. The thirteen all had well-established systems of self-government and elections based on the [[Rights of Englishmen]] which they were determined to protect from imperial interference.{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003|page=665}}