n also discovered that the colonys charter gave the power to pass laws and levy taxes to the General Court, a secret Winthrop had kept from the freemen. The General Court in turn became a representative group with two or three representatives in the Council for each town.This local representation was characteristic of the landholding patterns of Massachusetts. A great emphasis was placed on religion, not wealth, in the colony. This meant that land was primarily for necessity of survival, not for personal gain. As demonstrated by a dispute, religious solemnity did not always prevail. After a small dispute startled the assistants making them realize they could easily be out voted, the Massachusetts General Council became a bicameral assembly. Each house now requiring a majority vote to pass legislation. The creation of the bicameral legislature did not change the original charter for the colony. The implementation of the charter, however, was quite different than the original arrangement.Settlement was not part of the Virginia Companys vocabulary. They were there for gold, not to become farmers. But a return trip to England being costly the company settled at Jamestown at a northwestern bend in the James River where they thought an East Asian passage might lay. Religion, unlike in Massachusetts, was not a pillar of existence. Landholding patterns in Virginia were spread out with plantation owners possessing large tracts of land keeping them miles and sometimes forests away from neighbors. Because of this situation it made gathering for services on a Sunday a difficult proposition as many residents did not even know their neighbors, and they feared travel at risk of Indian attack.The acquisition of land was primarily dictated by the governmental organization of the colony. Virginia began with a council intended to govern the colony. The plan quickly dissolved and a governor ruled with a strictly advisory council. Few original settle...
