WEBVTT NOTE 42. Nonimportation in the South 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.500 Volume 3, Chapter 42, Non-Importation in the South 2 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:13.180 Undoubtedly, the coercion against Boston helped to expand the non-importation movement, and 3 00:00:13.180 --> 00:00:20.420 it had, by spring of 1769, induced the merchants of the three great American ports to adopt 4 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:22.420 such boycotts. 5 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:29.300 From New England, New York and Philadelphia, the boycott movement now spread to other colonies. 6 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:36.100 However, the situation in the South, especially the tobacco colonies of the Upper South, was 7 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:42.620 more difficult than in the North. In those southern colonies, commerce was conducted mainly 8 00:00:42.620 --> 00:00:49.700 by English and Scottish factors or independent merchants. These were not likely to turn against 9 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:56.220 Great Britain and their own possibilities for trade. In the South, therefore, there 10 00:00:56.220 --> 00:01:03.720 There was a tendency to stress non-consumption agreements, as in the early New England boycotts, 11 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:07.860 and thus to go over the heads of the merchants to the people. 12 00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:12.940 The boycott movement was led by the leading consumers in each province, the large tobacco 13 00:01:12.940 --> 00:01:15.180 planters. 14 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:20.780 In Virginia, organizers of the boycott were the large planters George Washington and George 15 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:27.500 George Mason, joined by Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, 16 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:34.660 and Richard Henry Lee. When the House of Burgesses met in May 1769, it proclaimed that it alone 17 00:01:34.660 --> 00:01:40.780 had the right to levy taxes in Virginia, and attacked Britain's reaction to the Massachusetts 18 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:47.200 circular letter. It also denounced a British threat to haul Massachusetts patriot leaders 19 00:01:47.200 --> 00:02:15.200 When the Virginia governor dissolved the House in reaction to these resolutions, the members met privately on May 18 and formed the Virginia Association, pledging non-importation and non-consumption of all British goods subject to a duty, with the exception of paper as well as of a long list of imported fineries. 20 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:22.200 The agreement was devised by Mason in Washington, and Randolph was selected chairman of the association. 21 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:28.200 Back in their home counties, the planters persuaded many of the public to sign the agreement. 22 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:39.200 In neighboring Maryland, the merchants of Baltimore joined their confreres in Philadelphia to adopt a non-importation agreement at the end of March. 23 00:02:39.200 --> 00:02:44.200 Outside Baltimore, however, the traders and factors refused to join, 24 00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:55.200 and so planters led the way in bypassing them, signing a non-importation agreement in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County on May 23rd. 25 00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:08.200 Most Maryland counties soon followed suit, and this led to the Annapolis leaders calling a meeting of merchants, traders, freeholders, mechanics and other inhabitants for June 22. 26 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:28.200 The Maryland Association added more luxuries to its taboo list. It also went beyond previous agreements by pledging a business boycott of all persons not adhering to the agreement. Such were to be treated with contempt as enemies to the liberties of America. 27 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:35.720 The largest mercantile town in the south was Charleston, South Carolina. But Charleston 28 00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:42.880 lagged badly in joining the boycott movement. The mechanics, artisans of Charleston and 29 00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:50.800 the planters of the province, favored resistance, but the merchants proved apathetic. Receipt 30 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:57.880 of the circular letter of the Boston merchants in the fall of 1768 galvanized the South Carolinians 31 00:03:57.880 --> 00:04:03.880 and the Charleston Artisans won seats in the assembly on the cry of supporting the glorious 32 00:04:03.880 --> 00:04:11.360 92 anti-rescinders of Massachusetts. The leader of the South Carolina boycott movement was 33 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:18.360 the noted merchant planter Christopher Gadson, who welded the planter-artisan alliance. 34 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:25.160 Spokesman for the alliance was the Charleston South Carolina Gazette, printed by Peter Timothy. 35 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:32.200 In early February, Timothy urged non-consumption of imports on the people of the province, 36 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:38.640 and printed letters by planters urging such a boycott as a means of bypassing the reluctant 37 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:43.200 merchants. Charleston artisans met around the Liberty 38 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:51.720 Tree in March, calling for non-importation. By mid-June 1769, societies of gentlemen had 39 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:58.200 that sprung up in Charleston, pledging themselves to buy no British goods that could be manufactured 40 00:04:58.200 --> 00:05:06.320 in America. Thus, rich and poor united in favor of resistance. Still, despite the army 41 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:12.880 in Boston and the widespread non-importation movement throughout the colonies, the Charleston 42 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:19.960 merchants hung back and did nothing. The time had come for sterner measures by the popular 43 00:05:19.960 --> 00:05:28.160 Accordingly, Christopher Gadsen kicked off a new phase on July 22 with a denunciation 44 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:36.320 in the Gazette of importers of British goods, most of them newcomers in the colony. 45 00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:43.480 Gadsen and Timothy pushed for a formal non-consumption agreement, one pledging an all-out boycott 46 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:49.240 of all imports from Great Britain until the Townsend Acts were repealed. 47 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:56.320 A boycott was also threatened of all citizens who did not sign the agreement within a month. 48 00:05:56.320 --> 00:06:00.160 Heading the struggle for a boycott was Christopher Gadsden. 49 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:07.120 Accused of advocating independence for the American colonies, Gadsden replied that independence 50 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:15.000 would be bad, but added that losing their rights and liberties would be far worse. 51 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:22.040 Aiding Gadsden in the fight were his old colleague at the Stamp Act Congress, Thomas Lynch, 52 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:25.640 and the radical planter, John McKenzie. 53 00:06:25.640 --> 00:06:31.180 The original non-consumption agreement was also signed by 25 members of the South Carolina 54 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:32.680 Assembly. 55 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:40.600 On July 3 and 4, 230 mechanics of Charleston met under the Liberty Tree and signed the 56 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:46.400 Agreement, and even strengthened it by adding a pledge to buy no British goods from transient 57 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:52.680 traders and to import no slaves from British traders. Some of the mechanics also proceeded 58 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:58.760 to pledge to deal only with merchants who signed the non-importation agreement. The 59 00:06:58.760 --> 00:07:04.960 merchants railed at these agreements as worse than those of a despot, ignoring the vital 60 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:16.960 It is a real distinction that such boycotts were purely voluntary decisions, rather than coercive acts backed by the state or by any other force. 61 00:07:16.960 --> 00:07:22.960 Reluctantly, the merchants were dragged to the radical position. 62 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:28.960 At first, on July 7, they signed their own weaker non-importation agreement, 63 00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:35.360 Limiting the boycott to the year 1770 and permitting certain articles to be imported. 64 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:42.160 Further friction and severe pressure finally brought the merchants around. A joint committee 65 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:49.760 of merchants, planters and artisans drafted a uniform agreement and on July 22 Christopher 66 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:55.280 Gadsden triumphantly read this final agreement to a great audience under the Liberty Tree. 67 00:07:55.280 --> 00:08:02.560 Over 400 signers in this General Meeting of Inhabitants formed an association headed by 68 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:10.800 a 39-man General Committee of 13 representatives, each of merchants, planters and artisans, 69 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.600 to supervise the workings of the agreement. 70 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:19.100 The joint agreement was largely a victory for the radicals. 71 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:25.780 It was agreed to import no goods from Britain, to maintain previous prices, to buy no imports 72 00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:32.740 from transient merchants or negro slaves for a year's time. Any non-signing South Carolinian 73 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:41.320 would be boycotted, and any violator was understandably to be contemptuously advertised as being inimical 74 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:47.460 to American rights. Of particular importance was the pledge to continue the boycott not 75 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:53.420 not only until the duties were repealed, as was usual, but also until repeal of the entire 76 00:08:53.420 --> 00:08:59.900 Townsend Act structure, including the Customs Board and the new powers of the Vice Admiralty 77 00:08:59.900 --> 00:09:02.940 Courts. 78 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:09.660 Most enthusiastic of the advocates were the artisans, who, it must be noted, had a distinct 79 00:09:09.660 --> 00:09:13.660 economic interest in non-importation. 80 00:09:13.660 --> 00:09:20.020 As local manufacturers of domestic products, they were the ones who stood to gain most 81 00:09:20.020 --> 00:09:26.180 from the patriotic boycott banning the products of their British competitors. 82 00:09:26.180 --> 00:09:31.420 Georgia suffered from the same occupational split on the Townsend measures as did her 83 00:09:31.420 --> 00:09:33.700 sister Plantation Colony. 84 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:41.220 But a letter from the South Carolinians galvanized fraternal feelings in Georgia, and the radical 85 00:09:41.220 --> 00:09:47.620 Amicable Society met at Liberty Hall, Savannah, and called a meeting of inhabitants. 86 00:09:48.660 --> 00:09:55.780 The timorous merchants of Savannah tried to head off the association movement by proposing a weak 87 00:09:55.780 --> 00:10:02.420 substitute of their own, an agreement to boycott imports of only the dutyed articles. 88 00:10:03.380 --> 00:10:09.380 But the mass meeting of September 19 followed the South Carolina principles closely, 89 00:10:09.380 --> 00:10:15.580 and overruled the merchants without even a pretense of gaining the merchants' approval. 90 00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:21.900 North Carolina was still a holdout, with the merchants the main obstructive force, but 91 00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:28.420 the dam broke when Cornelius Harnett led the Sons of Liberty of Wilmington in Brunswick 92 00:10:28.420 --> 00:10:37.500 into non-importation resolutions at the end of September 1769. A province-wide association 93 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:43.300 The Association emerged after the manner of the Virginia Association a half year earlier. 94 00:10:43.300 --> 00:10:49.040 The North Carolina Assembly adopted the Virginia resolutions on importation, and was promptly 95 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:51.840 dissolved by Governor Tryon. 96 00:10:51.840 --> 00:11:00.100 The Assemblymen quickly met as private citizens, and on November 7, 1769, drew up an Association 97 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:02.560 for Non-Importation. 98 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:10.080 The agreement was much like Virginia's. Violators, furthermore, were to be treated with the utmost contempt.