On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress was called by Virginia, and invitations were issued by Committees of Correspondence. The purpose of this Congress was "to deliberate and determine wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies most ardently desired by all good men." The Continental Congress began in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, on September 5, 1774 with 56 members present. Two-thirds of these were lawyers, and the membership itself consisted of representatives of both the liberal and the conservative groups although the majority appeared to be in the former group. The Virginian, Peyton Randolph, was unanimously elected President of the First Continental Congress. During the Congress, Patrick Henry expressed the need for unity when he exclaimed: "The distinctions between Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian but an American." Concerning its chief accomplishments, the Congress (1) drew up a Declaration of Rights (a series of resolutions declaring that the colonists were entitled to certain rights: life, liberty and property, the right to vote their own taxes and the right to trial by jury; that these rights had been violated by the King and by Parliament since 1673; that unjust taxes and standing armies had been imposed upon them and their local assemblies unfairly interfered with by Parliament; that their repeated petitions for a redress of their grievances had been practically ignored in England) and (2) adopted "a non-importation, non-consumption and non-exportation agreement" called the Continental Association Plan. It should be noted that complete separation from England was not demanded at this time but rather cooperation from, and peace under, English rule. The session lasted approximately seven weeks, and then on October 26, 1774, after a motion had been passed setting May 10, 1775 as the date of a second congress meeting, the session was adjourned to await a reply from the King of England.
The resolutions passed by this Congress were circulated throughout the colonies for their approval. All sections of the Virginia colony approved them, even sections as far west as the area now occupied by the State of Kentucky. Two illustrations of such approval are the Fairfax Resolutions and the Fincastle Resolutions. The freeholders of Fairfax County met in Alexandria in July 1774 and passed the so-called Fairfax Resolutions, written by George Mason. The Fairfax Resolutions or Resolves, as they are sometimes called, reflected Virginia's attitude toward taxation, Parliament and even the King. In January 1775, at Lead Mines, Fincastle County seat, the freeholders met and prepared a paper congratulating and thanking the Virginia delegates for their part in the First Continental Congress. These Fincastle Resolutions also included strong written opposition to English tyrannical power.
In November 1774, Virginia had a tea party, similar in purpose to Boston in that it was an act of defiance against Great Britain's tea tax. On November 7, the Virginians discovered that a British ship, "Virginia," which had docked in the York River at an earlier date, contained tea cargo. The Committee of Safety for York County immediately sent to the House of Burgesses (which was meeting at Williamsburg) a message in the form of a protest against accepting this tea for sale in the colony. The Committee received a reply to the effect that the matter would be discussed in the House and an answer would be forthcoming the next Monday morning. Large groups of people gathered at Yorktown where the boat had been docked and waited for the reply. The House of Burgesses failed to send the reply, and the captain of the ship declared that he had received no message. The Committee waited a while longer and then proceeded to throw the tea out of the ship's hold into the York River. By this time, the Yorktown inhabitants had been informed of the "Intolerable Acts" which had been passed to punish the inhabitants of Boston. Therefore, they filled the ship with necessary supplies and sent it to the Bostonians. This incident was another example of the methods by which the colonists were learning to unite and to help each other in their common objectives.
When the American colonists began to carry out the non-importation agreement, the British merchants were very much affected: for example, the import trade from Great Britain to the American colonies declined about 95% by 1775. The Americans had some great British leaders on their side, but they were definitely in the minority. Edmund Burke and William Pitt urged that the "Intolerable Acts" be repealed and predicted that war was approaching with the American colonies if most of the objectionable laws were not repealed at this time. Burke and Pitt were overruled, however, in Parliament. Thus, the breach between the American colonies and the mother country became wider as time passed.
Continued growth in the number of counties reflected increases in population and a trend toward the rising importance of community life. From 1750 to 1775, several additional counties were formed: Halifax (formed from Lunenburg and named for George Montagu Dunk, Second Earl of Halifax and the first Lord of the Board of Trade), Dinwiddie (formed from Prince George County and named for Lord Dinwiddie, acting Lieutenant Governor of the Virginia Colony from 1751-1758), Prince Edward (formed from Amelia County and named for Edward Augustus, Prince of Wales), Bedford (formed from Lunenburg and part of Albemarle County and named for John Russell, Fourth Duke of Bedford, Secretary of State in Great Britain from 1748-1757), Sussex (formed from Surry County and named for Sussex County, England), Loudoun (formed from Fairfax County and named for John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the latter part of the French and Indian War and Governor-General of the American Colonies from 1756 to 1763), Fauquier (formed from Prince William County and named after Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant Governor from 1758 to 1768), Buckingham (formed from Albemarle County and named probably for the Duke of Buckingham), Charlotte (formed from Lunenburg and named for Princess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg, George III's queen), Mecklenburg (formed from Lunenburg and named in honor of the same queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), Pittsylvania (formed from Halifax County and named for Sir William Pitt, a famous English statesman who was pro-American toward the British Colonies in America), Botetourt (formed from Augusta County and part of Rockbridge County and named for Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt, Governor of Virginia from 1768 to 1770) and Amherst County (formed from Albemarle County "and certain islands in the Fluvanna River" and named for Sir Jeffrey Amherst, Governor-General of Virginia, 1759-1768).
SUMMARY
The historical Life of Virginia from 1584 to 1775 illustrates the "trial and error" method of learning to live cooperatively, comfortably and profitably in the New World. The inhabitants of the "Cradle of American Civilization" were faced with severe personal handicaps, problems of government (many of which had to be solved in an original fashion), explorations into untrodden and often uncivilized areas, the task of establishing a land economy, rebellions of the common man against the privileged few and the establishment of a culture and way of life adapted to the type of environment and peoples living in the area. The efforts of such leaders as John Smith, John Rolfe, Edwin Sandys, George Yeardley, Benjamin Syms, Thomas Eaton, James Blair, Alexander Spotswood, Thomas Lee, Robert Dinwiddie, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph and Andrew Lewis helped unite the colonists in Virginia in their development of democratic living.
During this period, the first representative legislative assembly in America was held, the first group of Negro slaves were imported to America, the first group of unmarried women arrived in the colonies, the first royal colony of England was organized, a county system of local government was established, the Commonwealth of Virginia was created, the second oldest college in America was founded, the first theater in America was built, many of the most beautiful plantation houses were constructed, the British became the dominant colonists in America, slavery became an accepted characteristic of plantation life, fifty-four counties were formed and strong opposition of the colonists in Virginia to political and economic control by the British King and Parliament was becoming very apparent. The first special Virginia Convention held in Williamsburg to determine the extent of Virginia's boycott of British goods and to choose delegates to a Continental Congress and the York River Tea Party at Yorktown exemplified mounting opposition. The stage of life in Virginia seemed naturally set for specific action against strict foreign regulation and control.