U.S. Colonial Laws  Tags: united_states_history laws history  

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This research guide pulls together various sources for laws of the original thirteen colonies.  In most cases, you will need to look under the name of the relevant colony. 

The BGSU Libraries owns some paper sources for colonial laws.  Some are available full text from the Internet Archives or Google Books.  Some are reproduced on microcards in the Early American Imprints microform series.  Other OhioLINK libraries own copies of some colonial laws that are available for borrowing.

A general source of colonial charters and some of the most important laws is:

Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the State, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, compiled and edited under the act of Congress of June 30, 1906 (7 vol.) This is available at the North West Ohio Book Depository and can be requested by clicking on the Request Item button on the BGSU Libraries Catalog record.

Some volumes are available full text online via:

Internet Archive:

v. 1

v. 2

v. 3

v. 4

v. 5

v. 6

v. 7

Google Books:

v.1

v.3

v.4  

v.6

v.7  

The Avalon Project is another source for colonial charters and a few other colonial laws.