Student Handout Number 3 Writing on “Sectional and Class Divisions, 1760-1775” in  “The Growth of  the  American  Republic”  Samuel  Eliot  Morison  and  Henry  Steele Commager said:   “Fully  as  important  was  the  question  of  who  should  rule  in  the colonies. Some colonies, such as North Carolina, were relatively democratic; and others, like New York, fully aristocratic in their social   structure.   In   some,   such   as   Massachusetts   and   New Hampshire,  the  franchise  was  fairly  broad;  in  others,  such  as South  Carolina,  it  was very narrowly restricted. But no one of the 13  was  really  democratic  in  political  or  social  structures,  much less ‘dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’ Class    distinctions    had    been    brought    from    England    by    the colonists, and since maintained; and class distinctions, in the 17th and 18th centuries, implied political privilege. “In all the colonies in 1760, the franchise was limited by property qualifications,  which  were  much  higher  for  office-holding;  and the   newly   settled   regions   were   under-represented   in   colonial legislatures, and in many other ways treated unfairly by colonial politicians and men of wealth. There was nothing new in this, but the    majority    were    beginning    to    resent    it,    and    the    political controversy  with  the  mother  country  enabled  them  to  make  this resentment   felt.   An   internal   quarrel,   partly   class   and   partly sectional,  cut  athwart  the  larger  contest  between  colonies  and mother  country.  There  were  really  two  American  revolutions  at the same time: the sectional revolt of 13 colonies against imperial centralization;  and  a  class  upheaval  against  vested  interests  and local governing classes.”