The business people in Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the colonies, stopped buying goods fromEngland to
protest the taxes. Because of this, England’s government slowly stopped the taxes on goods, except for the
one on tea. The people of port cities among the American colonies then refused to buy tea. This action is
known as a
boycott
. On one occasion, an English ship that arrived in Philadelphia had to sail back to England
with its cargo of tea unsold because no one would buy it.
Many leaders in England did not agree with the colonists’ concerns. Their leaders thought, “How dare those
colonials question our laws.” Many of England’s citizens felt very superior to the colonists and refused to listen
to their voices.
Meanwhile, American colonial leaders decided it was time to hold another meeting in Philadelphia. InMay
1775, they held the
Second Continental Congress
at the Pennsylvania State House which is now known as
Independence Hall
. There was an urgent need for thismeeting because onemonth earlier fighting had begun
between English troops and theMassachusetts’
colonists
. This was amore serious convention than the first
one. In the 1700s, it was unthinkable for people living in a colony to declare
their freedomand independence. However, after many hours of tense debate,
the leaders of the Congress voted for independence fromEngland.
Congress appointed
GeorgeWashington
as Commander of the American
army. Washington was sent toMassachusetts to organize the new army.
The leaders of Congress continued tomeet and debate issues throughout an
entire year, with short breaks in-between. The leaders of the Second Continental
Congress decided a document was needed in which the American colonies
officially declared their independence fromEngland.
InMay 1776, five people were chosen to write a
Declaration of
Independence
. It was agreed by the committee that a Virginian,
Thomas
Jefferson
, write the first draft of the Declaration. He worked on it most of
June, receiving help from
Benjamin Franklin
, a Pennsylvanian. While it
was
radical
thinking for a colony to be independent from itsmother
country, many of the ideas contained in the Declaration, such as people
governing themselves, were not radical. They had been written about and
describedmany years earlier. However, this was the first time the ideas
were proposed for the government of an independent country. The laws
and ideas set forth inWilliamPenn’s colony were also used in creating the
Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jeffersonwrote the
first draft of theDeclaration
of Independence. Benjamin
Franklin and JohnAdams
provided help to Jefferson
with this process.
48
Understanding Pennsylvania
