History of Representation in the States

[Keith Broaders]

In 1619 the House of Burgesses was established in Virginia.. At that time 22 white men were elected to represent the 11 plantations in Virginia.

Each settlemtnt was entitled to two delegates regardless of their population.The senate or upper chambe in the House of Burgesses had 6 delegates that were appointed by the Governor. of the state.

In 1776 Virginia had126 delegates  representing the collective interests 63 counties sand in 1787 the 

In 1787 Virginia had a population 752,908 and still had 126 delegates  or one represnetative for every 5,975 people.

Today, Virginia has a population of 8,536,000 and has 100 representatives in their state legislature or one representative for every 85,360 peoplein their state legislature

If there isinadequatele represntation you villexperience a tyranny of the miority, but in a democracy yoy risk having a tyranny of the majority.

Before the Constitution was ratified Virginia had one representative for every 5,975 people.

They believed that limiting the size of Congressional Disricts not to exceed 30,000 would prevent the tyranny of a majority.

It was the intent of our founding fathers tp limit the potential abuse of power of the government by creating a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Seante. This model would prevent the states with larger poulations from completely dominating the interests of the smaller states.

When the states wrote their Constitutions in 1776 they created bicameral legislatures that had one Legislative House to represent the people and a senate to represent the counties. This same model was copied in the Constitutional Convention.

[Keith Broaders]

[Keith Broaders]

[Keith Broaders]

The House of Burgesses was the fist elected legislative body established in North America. It was a bicameral legislature with a House of Delegates consisting of two representative elected by the people in each of the 11 settlements. and 

[Keith Broaders]

In 1790, Virginia had around 70-80 counties, though an exact count is tricky due to census loss and boundary changes, with major counties like Henrico, James City, Pittsylvania, and Fincastle existing before the 1790 census, and new ones forming as the state expanded westward and separated from West Virginia, forming a significant portion of the new U.S