First continental congress facts for kids
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures imposed by the British government on the colonies in response to their resistance to new taxes.
The First Continental Congress was a group of fifty-six men from twelve of the thirteen colonies that would eventually become the United States of America. Only the delegates from Georgia were unable to attend this first group of meetings, which lasted almost two months. They met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from September 5 to October 26, 1774. Benjamin Franklin had tried to convince the delegates to meet earlier, but some were not ready yet. Some famous men who were elected by their colonies to represent them in the First Continental Congress were George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Joseph Galloway, and John Dickinson.
The settlers of the colonies were not happy with how Great Britain was treating them. They thought that Great Britain kept too much power over them, especially since the king enacted the Intolerable Acts to punish the colonies for the Boston Tea Party. Some of the colonies were ready to split completely away from Great Britain and rule themselves. Others just wanted Great Britain’s king and British Parliament to treat them more fairly. The delegates wrote to King George III to tell him that if he did not stop the Intolerable Acts, the colonies would no longer buy any of England’s products that they sent over to the colonies. This action is called a boycott.
Before the last meeting of the First Continental Congress in October, the delegates decided that if the king did not meet their demands, they would meet again in May of 1775. King George did not respond in a way the colonies had hoped he would, and the American Revolutionary War began in April.
See also
In Spanish: Primer Congreso Continental para niños
