The Journals of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts between 1715 and 1735 record an Assembly "flooded" with petitions. This study follows the progress of the 3800 petitions submitted to the Massachusetts legislature in that period, and argues that through those appeals for a redress of grievances, and the committees and hearings appointed by the House to deal with them, the people of Massachusetts actively participated in the governance of the province in ways previously underestimated by historians.. Only a third of petitions were granted or rejected by the House at a first reading. The majority were assigned to committees or hearings (composed of Representatives) to investigate the 'pleas and allegations' of the petitioners.
Previous historians of this period of political history in Massachusetts have admitted their 'bewilderment' that while there was a wide franchise for white, propertied, males, their seemed little interest by them in actually voting. Simply put, this study contends, they didn't need to: if they (or the unenfranchised, including women and Indians) wanted to influence the General Court they could approach it directly through a petition. As one result, over half the legislation enacted in Massachusetts in this period is attributable to the 'prayer' of a petition. The right to vote, though jealously defended, was little regarded as a means to sway political decisions; a realisation that suggests that when historians consider how 'democratic' were the pre-revolutionary colonies that a wider definition of democracy than the right to vote, or adherence to new political ideologies, needs to be assessed.