When modern Americans call themselves patriots, they are evoking a sentiment that is 250 years old.
In September 1774, nearly two years before the Declaration of Independence, delegates from 12 of the 13 Colonies gathered in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. They quickly hammered out a political, economic and cultural program to unify the so-called “Patriot” movement against British rule.
As a Smithsonian curator who studies American identity, I explore the often forgotten ways that the First Continental Congress mobilized an unprecedented number of Colonists behind shared commitments. Most important, perhaps, they established critical terms by which contemporaries measured patriotism – and identified nonpatriots – through the early years of revolution.
They built the association on earlier efforts to limit trade with Britain, adopted by various Colonies or seaport towns. Now the Congress went further, promulgating a sweeping trade boycott for all 13 Colonies to join at once and urging every supporter of Colonial rights from New Hampshire to Georgia to accept its restrictions.
When modern Americans call themselves patriots, they are evoking a sentiment that is 250 years old.
In September 1774, nearly two years before the Declaration of Independence, delegates from 12 of the 13 Colonies gathered in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. They quickly hammered out a political, economic and cultural program to unify the so-called “Patriot” movement against British rule.
As a Smithsonian curator who studies American identity, I explore the often forgotten ways that the First Continental Congress mobilized an unprecedented number of Colonists behind shared commitments. Most important, perhaps, they established critical terms by which contemporaries measured patriotism – and identified nonpatriots – through the early years of revolution.
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