The Improtance Of The First Continental Congresses

Question 1

When and where was the first continental congress and who attended it ?

Answer 1

Philadelphia from the 5 September 1774 to November the same year
- delegates from all colonies apart from Georgia

It was a result of widespread opposition the coercive acts as a result of the Boston tea party

Question 2

What was the aim of the first continental congress ?

Answer 2

To coordinate action against British to lift the intolerable acts it was not revolutionary but it did want George III to consider colonial grievances and to end repressive measures

Question 3

What was the dilemma ?

Answer 3

Urging peace and reconciliation but using economic boycott to pressures Britain

Question 4

What did the 1st continental congress organize ?

Answer 4

A continental Association and measures for a trade embargo with an export ban being threatens if the acts were not removed by September 1775
- hopes of enforcing the ban, local committees of safety were established which proved effective at making citizens support it

However the South and North colonies argued furiously: South economically dependant on its exports of cotton to Britain

Question 5

Did the letters and petition to George III in the first continental confess have any effect ?

Answer 5

No
It had little effect and George III made a speech in Parliament 30 November condemning the actions in Massachusetts’s

Question 6

What did the first continental congress endorse and call for?

Answer 6

• endorsed the Suffolk resolves which declared the Coercive Acts bull and void and called for arms in a defence of Massachusetts
• first time that an organised body of delegate’s in the colonies with authority has encouraged armed resistance and not mob action

Question 7

What was the overall effect of the first continental congress ?

Answer 7

• Congress uninterested in independence but more so in the restoration of liberties taken from the colonists by Britain
• limited effect with George III and parliament who refused to acknowledge the petition in London

Question 8

Did the first continental congress have any authority ?

Answer 8

No coercive or legislative authority and provided a unification of colonial interest

Question 9

When and what did the first congress issue ?

Answer 9

October 17 1774
- Declaration of Colonial Rights and Grievances
- denied parliaments right to tax colonies and the stationing of troops in Boston however it affirmed Parliament’s right to regulate trade and didn’t challenge their loyalty