How Did The English Bill Of Rights Influence Colonial America

5) The English magna Carta was created in 1215 to place limits on the power of the monarch. The law making body of England, Parliament, was depended on the King and Queen to pay for wars as well as the Royal Government. Similar to the deeds of the magna Carta colonial assemblies controlled their colonies funds and had some control over colonial governors. Another model for Americans was the English Bill of Rights taking place during 1689. Many people in the America’s thought that the constitution needed a Bill of Rights. Ideas created by the writers of the Enlightenment about the nature of people and government were agreed upon the Framers of the constitution. The Enlightenment was created in the 1700s for encouraging knowledge, reason and science attempting to improve societies. …show more content…
The Framers read their writings, Two Treatises of Civil Government and The Spirit of Laws and used them to help with writing of the constitution. John Locke the English philosopher wrote that all people had natural rights. Some rights that he talked about were the rights to life, liberty, and property. He showed his wisdom to the world in the book Two Treatises of Civil Government in 1690. In this he compared the government to a business deal or agreement between the rulers and their people. When the Americans thought about natural rights they first thought about the Magna Carta and English Bill of Rights and the natural rights that the Britons possessed in these documents. Locke’s interpretation was much different from the Framers of the Constitution look on things. The Framers believed that the constitution was a contract between the inhabitants of America and America’s government. The concluding constitution ended up limiting the government power by protecting the natural rights of Americans inspired by John