The General Meeting in July 1774 lasted three days and was “the LARGEST BODY of the most respectable Inhabitants that had ever been seen together upon any public Occasion here, or perhaps any where in America,” reported the South-Carolina Gazette. People came from nearly every district and parish, including the backcountry. They came to shape the colony’s response to the Boston Port Act.
News of the Port Act reached Charleston at the end of May in a circular letter from Philadelphia. In a June 3 Gazette supplement, the text of the Act appeared in black borders. It decreed: “it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever, to lade or put, or cause to be laden and put, off or from any quay, wharf, or other place, within the said town of Boston, or in or upon any part of the shore of the bay.” The act brought commerce to halt a town of thousands, depleting stores in weeks. The plan was to starve Boston in submission, to force it to pay for the tea.
A “Letter to the Freemen of America” cried: “New-York, Philadelphia, and Charles-Town, cannot expect to escape the fate of Boston. We have done nearly the same injury to the property of the East-India Company. When the spirits of our brethren in Boston are subdued, our rivers and shores will probably be crowded with men of war and our rivers lined with Tide-waiters. … Every stroke aimed at them is levelled against the vitals of all America. Success has hitherto crowned our attempts to save our country. Virtue— unanimity— and perseverance are INVINCIBLE.”
In the regular June 6 issue, Peter Timothy, as he had done before, reported violent weather in conjunction with offensive acts of Parliament:
Last Wednesday, JUNE the 1st, the memorable Day on which the Blockade of the Town of Boston was to commence, the very Elements, at Distance, were in such Commotion, that all the Vessels lying at the Wharves were torn from them in an Instant, several of them much damaged, four Schooners were overset, and it was scarce possible to see across even the narrowest Street in Town. A great deal of Damage was also done in the Country, where Abundance of growing Corn, many Fences, and some slight houses were thrown down.
A report on the King’s birthday celebration the same week contrasted official events with the people’s response:
“ … Bells were rang—Colours displayed—Guns at the Forts fired—the militia were reviewed— …. But there was not a single House illuminated at Night, nor any other Demonstration of Joy; the People lamenting that so good a Prince should be beset by a Ministry who seem to have studied to alienate rather than preserve the Affections of his most loyal Subjects.”
The June 13 Gazette called for the General Meeting “to consider the papers, letters, and resolutions” of the northern colonies “and such steps as are necessary to be pursued, in union with the inhabitants of all our Sister Colonies on this Continent”—to enact a non-trade agreement to force repeal of the Port Act. On the front page of the June 20 issue, thirteen merchants advertised that they would send “as expeditiously as possible” donations “for the relief of our distressed brethren in Boston.” June 27 “A Carolinian” wrote that “CAROLINA and NEW-ENGLAND are happy in being connected, and in stretching their arms to each other.”
The same issue expressed pride that “of the Twentynine Gentlemen who dared to subscribe their Names to the Petitions presented to both Houses of Parliament against the Boston Port Bill, there are no less than eleven Natives of this Province.”
The main achievement of the July 6-8 meeting was electing a slate of delegates in sympathy with the Sister Colonies. But getting there was a struggle. Planters and merchants wanted to delay action until the September Continental Congress, the merchants because delay was good for business, the planters because the rice crop was waist high and they had no intention of letting it rot in the field. But the mechanics—the Sons of Liberty and their allies—called for an immediate non-trade agreement. As “A Carolinian” wrote: “Have the spirit to shut up your own harbours, as to British commerce, and suck of the breasts of your own abundance.”
The proponents of delay argued that their “Sister Colonies” could not be trusted not to back out of an agreement preemptively as they did in 1770.
The factions argued over what it meant to pledge “to assist … and support the People of Boston, by all lawful Ways in their Power; and … leave no justifiable Means untried to procure a Repeal of those Acts, … and also of all others affecting the constitutional Rights and Liberties of America in general.”
To the mechanics the answer was simple: a blockade for a blockade. But the merchants succeeded in killing a non-trade agreement, after painting a picture of misery should it pass.
The next dispute was over what to instruct the delegates. The merchants wanted to restrict instructions; they wanted no interference with trade. Some planters were open to a no-trade agreement, but wanted delegates to lobby for delay until the rice shipped. The mechanics wanted the delegates to use their own judgement of what it meant to use all “justifiable means.” The vote was close, but the mechanics won.
Power then fell to the faction that controlled the delegates. The Chamber of Commerce, which had met July 5 to discuss how to manipulate the meeting, nominated three and schemed to get their clerks—and anyone else obligated to them—to vote for their ticket. The mechanics got wind of the plan and ran through the streets gathering supporters to the polls. The mechanics’ ticket won: Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, and Edward Rutledge.
The final resolution of the General Meeting was to form a Committee of Ninety-Nine, a quasi-government body, of sixty-nine planters, including backcountry representatives, plus fifteen merchants and fifteen mechanics—giving the mechanics representation equal to that of their “betters.” Peter Timothy was elected Secretary to the Committee.
Meanwhile 200 barrels of South Carolina rice made it to Boston. Samuel Adams thanked Gadsden in a July 18 letter. On July 27, Adams wrote to Timothy, alerting him that a shipment of “forty or fifty dozen Hoes and Axes” was headed his way. Each tool was signed by its maker. The craftsmen were “Men of Approved Skill and fidelity in their Business and will warrant their Work.”
I had no idea about this support. That’s a lot of rice! Looking forward to the next chapter