On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses met in the evening to discuss how the Virginia House should respond to the news of the Boston Port Act that had just been received in Virginia. They decided to prepare a resolution for the House to observe a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer on June 1, when the Boston Port Act would close the Port of Boston. They also asked the very religious and moderate Treasurer of Virginia, Robert Carter Nicholas, to introduce the resolution in the House the next day, in order to disguise the radical nature of the proclamation.

Source: https://www.ouramericanrevolution.org/index.cfm/page/view/p0206#:~:text=On%20May%2024%2C%201774%2C%20after,threatens%20destruction%20to%20our%20Civil

On this day 250 years ago in New York, a specially formed Committee of Fifty-One dispatched their response to Boston declining to join a non-importation pact but instead proposing

that a congress of deputies from the colonies in general is of the utmost moment; that it ought to be assembled without delay, and some unanimous resolution formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances, but for the security of our common rights.

Source: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/letter_ny_comm_1774.asp

And also on this day 250 years ago in Chestertown, Maryland, the Chestertown Tea Party supposedly happened. Some scholars question whether the event actually occurred. Based on my research, I think something did happen, but it was probably the dumping of only a small quantity of tea with the consent and participation of the owner of the ship’s cargo that included the tea, James Nicholson, rather than a riot as portrayed in commemoration since the 1960s. Nicholson was a firm Patriot, and was said to have signed the Chestertown Resolves which are an undisputed historical fact, but he may have learned of the calls to block tea imports only after he had already distributed the bulk of the tea to merchants in the area. In signing the Chestertown Resolves and agreeing not to import further tea it would make sense that he would arrange for a public dumping of the tea that remained in his possession.

At any event, the annual commemoration of the Chestertown Tea Party looks like a fun event, and we are going to attend it this weekend.

Sources: https://theamericanscholar.org/tea-and-fantasy/

The Key to Kent County History

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