The overthrow of British rule led to a flurry of legal reform in the former colonies. Laws associated with the monarchical and feudal traditions of Britain were eliminated. An emphasis on individual rights became increasingly important in American political life.

Primogeniture was a time-honored custom designed to preserve large estates in a family by granting the bulk of an inheritance to the eldest son. This practice was widespread in America. So was entail, another device to keep land from being alienated or sold. Even in colonies where primogeniture was not established, as in New England, the eldest son received a double share of an estate. The egalitarian ethos of the American revolution rejected feudal legacies like primogeniture and entail. New laws were passed encouraging more equitable distribution of inheritances when property owners died without a will. Within a few decades primogeniture and entail disappeared.

Voting rights in the American colonies had always been governed by property qualifications. During the revolution there was a movement to reduce the requirements for voting. Some leaders argued that property qualifications should be eliminated altogether, but such a radical step would have to wait for the nineteenth century. The revolutionary years did see the widening of the franchise in most states. In Virginia, any man who possessed twenty-five acres of farmland or five hundred acres of unimproved land could vote. Any man who paid taxes could vote in Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Americans enjoyed a great deal of religious toleration at the outbreak of the revolution. Toleration is not the same thing as full religious freedom. Except in Rhode Island, Catholics, Jews, or members of other dissenting churches suffered from varying degrees of official discrimination. Religious nonconformists had their political rights restricted, even in Rhode Island. Nine colonies had established churches — Congregationalism in New England, Anglicanism in the southern colonies. All taxpayers had to financially support the established church, regardless of their religious convictions.

The privileged position of the established churches came under attack during the revolution. The results were mixed. In Virginia, a Declaration of Rights in 1776 guaranteed religious toleration. The Anglican Church was disestablished two years later. Thomas Jefferson drafted a Statute of Religious Liberty that was enacted in Virginia in 1786. This declared “that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.” Jefferson's Statute was a landmark in the advance of religious freedom in the United States. This would be a gradual process. In New England, the Congregational Church would lose some privileges during the revolution, but full disestablishment would not come until the next century.