Democracy in Colonial Wethersfield, Connecticut

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David Faulkner

Period 4

Democracy in Colonial Wethersfield, Connecticut

        

In the years before the Revolutionary War, America and its people started to change, becoming more independent and more Democratic.  From the example of Wethersfield, it is possible to see that the American society was becoming more Democratic in the later1700s but was also still very much influenced by the Christian church.  From an assortment of evidence, such as the increase in voters and the decrease in slaves, we can see the change that was going on.

        

In the social structure of Wethersfield, we can see how they are becoming more Democratic because of how there are less slaves than there previously was according to document A.  Something that is shown by documents B, D, and E is the unfairness in land holdings.  It would seem that by becoming more democratic in some areas, the rich are finding ways of making themselves richer, shown by the unfairness in the taxes of property and the chart comparison of how the same people stay in the top percentage of the wealthiest. Along with that, in document E, we can see how the houses, although very similar, have highly different tax assessments; maybe certain people of those houses had a little more influence than the others.  

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The politics of the new world had shown to have more participation in the voting and electing of officials. In document G there is shown a high increase in the number of people actuality voting, the numbers being raised by about 23 men.  Also, in the 1770s elections there were more men being elected to a major town office from various social groups.  The trend of mostly the top 10% of men in the town being elected has shifted greatly to the second highest ten percent but has also spread out of the other groups seen in Document H. ...

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