On What, Colonies Agreed Over Massachusetts At The First Continental Congress?
At the First Continental Congress, the colonies agreed that along with Massachusetts, all of them should start boycotting British commercial goods’ imports from their markets.
First Continental Congress urged all the participants (12 colonies) to continue that boycott until the British Parliament repeals the 5 Intolerable Acts.
This economic boycott came into effect on December 1st, 1774.
Even to make this boycott successful, they formed their own associations to produce various goods for the colonies.
In this initiative, North Carolina took an important role. Around 51 women in this colony formed this manufacturing association.
Along with this significant decision, they also decided to set up their own militia groups and collect armaments for possible armed confrontations with British Royal forces.
| Important: Massachusetts Didn’t Take All The Decisions Alone. All The Colonies Collectively Took The Decisions To Counter The English Authority’s Autocracy; Primarily, To Counter The Five Intolerable Acts. |
Why First Continental Congress Had To Take This Important Decision?
The story began in 1773 on 16th December.
On December 16th, 1773, in response to the Tea Act of 1773, some patriots from the Sons of Liberty organization successfully executed the Boston Tea Party incident at Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.
This incident was a like major challenge to the authority of Great Britain over the 13 colonies.
This tea party caused huge economic losses to the British East India Company, indirectly to the English government.
Therefore, they felt its necessary to punish the colonists very hard.
In response to the colonists’ rebellious incident, in 1774, the British Parliament decided to impose some Coercive Acts on the 13 colonies.
Those Coercive Acts were highly vengeful to the colonist’s interests; the laws mainly targeted the Bostonians, Massachusetts province.
Especially, they intended to do this via the Boston Port Act, Administration of Justice Act, and Massachusetts Government Act.
Due to the laws’ retaliatory character, colonists named them Intolerable Acts.
Here, a total of 5 acts were included.
They were:
- Boston Port Act (Read here)
- Massachusetts Government Act (Read here)
- Administration of Justice Act (Read here)
- Quartering Act
- Quebec Act
Colonists understood the laws vengeful characters. For colonists, it was necessary to counter them under any circumstances.
Therefore, as a response to these vengeful decisions of the British authority, 12 of the 13 American colonies first time came together in Philadelphia at a meeting.
In the history of America, the meeting is famous as the ‘First Continental Congress’ of 1774.
Here, the colonies collectively agreed – because the British Parliament and King George III were becoming so hostile towards colonists, colonists should also be aggressive towards the British authority.
As a result, they decided to impose a heavy economic boycott against British economic goods’ imports.
Guess what?
The economic boycott significantly reduced British goods’ import to the colonies by 97 percent till the end of 1775.
Even going one step further, colonists threatened British authority to completely cease the exports from September 10th, 1775, if they wouldn’t repeal the five bad laws.
But Why Britain Was So Hostile Towards Massachusetts?
Massachusetts province was the main center and the earliest podium of the American Revolution.
Some of the most important events, such as the Boston Massacre the Boston Tea Party, happened at this place.
These incidents gave the colonists a feeling of hatred towards British rule and encouraged them to achieve independence.
Especially after the Boston Tea Party, unrest started being out of control of the British authority’s hand.
Due to these reasons, it was necessary for the British government to contain it somehow.
They knew that if the unrest gets spread to the other colonies, it would become difficult to calm it down again.
These were the main reasons the British did such hostile actions towards the colonists of Massachusetts via imposing punitive laws.
[Did You Know? The First Continental Congress Was The First Time When Most American Colonies Came Together Against Great Britain. The Unification Began The Journey To The Birth of The United States of America]
