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What is the organizational structure of Maryland’s government in the 1600s and who can participate in it?

User Omar Ali
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Answer:

Maryland, the first General Assembly, a law-making assembly of freemen, met at St. Mary's City on February 26, 1634/5. This proprietary assembly was one body consisting of the governor and council, and a general assembly of all freemen. In 1650, it separated into two chambers.

What today is the House of Delegates began as the Lower House of the General Assembly in 1650, when the legislature became a bicameral body (Chapter 1, Acts of 1650). To the Lower House, freemen in each hundred elected burgesses as their representatives. From 1654, the county replaced the hundred as the local area represented.

House of Delegates Chamber, State House, Annapolis, Maryland, January 2018. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

User Geotob
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