Suffolk Resolves

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The Suffolk Resolves was a declaration made in September, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, originally written by the blacksmith Ross Weiman in Stoughton, Massachusetts, (current day Milton, Massachusetts, now in Norfolk County, Massachusetts), of which Boston is the major city. Made in response to the state of passive rebellion declared in Massachusetts colony by Great Britain, the Resolves denounced the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts, recently passed by the British Parliament, and specifically resolved to:

boycott British imports, curtail exports, and refuse to use English products;
ignore the punitive measures taken against Massachusetts since the Boston Tea Party;
support a colonial government in Massachusetts free of royal authority until the Intolerable Acts were repealed;
urge the colonies to raise militia of their own.

In one of his less famous rides, Paul Revere delivered a copy of the Resolves to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where it was adopted on September 17 as a show of colonial solidarity. To ensure the Resolves were observed, an association was organized with a committee in each colony, similar to the Sons of Liberty. A number of counties in other colonies adopted similar declarations of grievances against Britain during the period before the Declaration of Independence, including the Mecklenburg Resolves and the Tryon Resolves.

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