The English colonies set up forms of representative government consisting of an appointed governor and a legislature, a law making body elected by voters. Having an appointed governor and a legislature sometimes led to tensions. The governor and the assembly frequently disagreed over taxes, the selection of other goverment officials, and defense of the colony.

Economic poicies also caused tensions between England and the colonies. In the 1660s the English Parliament's Navigation Acts mad it illegal for colonial merchants to sell certain goods to other nations. Angered, some colonists turned to smuggling--selling goods illegaly--to avoid the laws. As a protest against the Navigation Acts, North Carolina citizens also held a popular uprising in 1677, known as Culpeper's Rebellion. Led by John Culpeper and George Durant, the rebellious colonists seized the acting governor, Thomas Miller, jailed him, and took possession of tobacco and taxes he had collected. Culpeper's Rebellion was one of the first outbreaks of popular unrest held in the colonies.