 The colony offered nearly all adult males potential citizenship . Full citizens , or " freemen " , were accorded full rights and privileges in areas such as voting and holding office . To be considered a freeman , adult males had to be sponsored by an existing freeman and accepted by the General Court . Later restrictions established a one @-@ year waiting period between nominating and granting of freeman status , and also placed religious restrictions on the colony 's citizens , specifically preventing Quakers from becoming freemen . Freeman status was also restricted by age ; the official minimum age was 21 , although in practice most men were elevated to freeman status between the ages of 25 and 40 , averaging somewhere in their early thirties . 
