Our First Anti-Slavery Law
Meeting in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, members of the First Continental Congress passed the legislation known as the Continental Association or the Articles of Association on October 20th, 1774. When this bill was signed into law, representatives of the Thirteen Colonies agreed to act together and resist British policies. President Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, said this agreement was the first step in creating what became the United States of America.
Beginning on December 1st, 1774, the bill banned the importation of British goods from England, Ireland, or its colonies in the Caribbean or exporting goods produced in the 13 Colonies to any of those destinations.
The driving force behind the gathering AND the creation of the bill is a group of legislation from the British Parliament known as The Intolerable Acts. They got their name because they were, to the residents of the 13 Colonies, unacceptable.
The acts are:
The Boston Port Act that closed Boston to all shipping.
Massachusetts Government Act that replaced the Massachusetts House of
Administration of Justice Act that gave the British government the right to take someone charged with a crime in one of the colonies to another British colony or to England for trial.
Quartering Act that required colonists to house British Army troops in their homes without permission or compensation.
These laws, plus others like The Stamp Act were simply unacceptable to the Colonists who believed they had the same rights as those living in Great Britain.
What is as interesting as the contents of the bill is who signed it and who didn’t. The 53 signers include John and Samuel Adams, Silas Deane, Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Hewes, John Jay, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington. Absent are Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, just to name a few.
What was in the bill that has 14 numbered paragraphs? Reading it, one realizes that this is a document that is as much about business as it is about individual rights. What is also surprising is that one finds many of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence and later codified into law via the Constitution and Bill of Rights. You can read the bill in its original syntax at this link from the National Archives –
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0094 .
The bill bans colonists from either exporting or importing goods from England, Ireland, and British Colonies in the Caribbean. There are clauses on how to deal with price gouging – those who do will be vilified and condemned in print – as well as triggers that will cause the legislation to be repealed.
However, paragraph two is very, very surprising. It reads – That we will neither import nor purchase any Slave imported after the first Day of December next, after which Time we will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our Vessels, nor sell our Commodities or Manufactures, to those who are concerned in it.
Note that this paragraph banned the slave trade was written in 1774, 20 years before the Congress began to limit slavery through a series of acts beginning with the Slave Trade Act of 1794 and 91 years before the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865. Sadly, neither the First nor Second Continental Congresses had the power to enforce laws they passed which is one of the many reasons we now have the Constitution.
In those 91 years, we fought the costliest war in U.S. History, in terms of casualties. It is no wonder Lincoln referred to the importance of this document.
Photo of Carpenter’s Hall was taken in 2015 by P. B. James.