Answer:
The Pilgrims established a government of sorts under the Mayflower Compact of 1620, which enshrined the notion of the consent of the governed. Next, in 1630, the Puritans used the royal charter establishing the Massachusetts Bay Company to create a government in which “freemen”—white males who owned property and paid taxes and thus could take on the responsibility of governing—elected a governor and a single legislative body called the Great and General Court, made up of assistants and deputies.
Step-by-step explanation:
Conflicts arose over the arbitrariness of the assistants, and in 1641 the legislature created the Body of Liberties. This document was a statement of principles for governance that protected individual liberties and was the basis for the guarantees later expressed in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. In 1644 this single body became an entity made up of two chambers: the House of Assistants (later the Senate) and the House of Deputies (later the House of Representatives). This set the precedent of bicameralism for most governmental legislatures in the United States, including the eventual federal legislature.