Committees of Correspondence: Correspondence Committees were emergency provisional governments set up in the 13 American colonies in response to British policies leading to the War of Independence (also known as the American Revolution). The exchange of ideas, information, and debates between the various correspondence committees helped organize and mobilize patriotic resistance in communities across the colonies and laid the groundwork for the Continental Congress.
British colonial policy after the French and Indian war
Until the end of the 18th century, the British American colonies enjoyed a high level of autonomy and control over their own political and economic affairs, thanks to the long-standing unofficial policy known as salutary neglect. This began to change soon after the French and Indian War, when King George III and his ministers set out to strengthen Britain’s hold on the colonies (and increase revenues to pay off the British war debt ).
Tensions began to mount in 1764 with the passage by the British Parliament of the Sugar Act, which imposed a duty on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies. This was quickly followed by the Currency Act, which prohibited colonies from printing their own currency; and the Stamp Act, which required settlers to pay a tax on paper and printed matter.
During the 1760s, Boston, New York, and other colonies established correspondence committees to organize resistance to such unpopular legislation. These first correspondence committees were supposed to be temporary structures that would be dissolved as soon as a particular policy was repealed. They proved effective in mobilizing opposition to British policies: in 1770 Britain had repealed the Stamp Act and most of the Townshend Acts, a series of measures that taxed products like porcelain, glass, lead , paint, paper and tea.
Boston Correspondence Committee formed
In November 1772, Samuel Adams and other prominent patriots formed the Boston Committee of Correspondence in response to news that governors, judges and other senior officials in the Bay Province of Massachusetts would be paid by the Crown rather than by the colonial legislatures. Adams argued that this threatened the settlers’ right to a fair trial, as judges were accountable to the British King rather than to local institutions. After the Boston committee compiled a list of grievances against the British government and distributed it widely, Correspondence Committees began to form in cities in Massachusetts and beyond.
Growing patriotic discontent in Boston erupted in the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, and British retaliation – including the passing of coercive laws (known in the colonies as intolerable acts) in the spring of 1774 – would only do ‘fan the flames of colonial resistance. Instead of isolating Massachusetts and preventing unified resistance to British policies, the intolerable acts served instead to garner more support for the growing Patriots cause.
Virginia and the intercolonial system of correspondence committees
Meanwhile, the fallout from the Gaspee affair continued, involving a group of Rhode Island residents who set a British Customs vessel on fire in June 1772. Parliament had ordered a commission to investigate the blaze of the ship and send the perpetrators back to England for trial. Viewing this as an alarming act of imperialism, the Virginia House of Burgesses formed its own Correspondence Committee in March 1773 to open communication and organize resistance between the colonies.
By the end of 1774, networks of correspondence committees had been established in 11 of the 13 colonies, excluding Pennsylvania and North Carolina, with an estimated total membership of around 7,000.
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Role of Committees in Revolutionary War
Correspondence committees functioned primarily as a means to disseminate news and information about the Patriots’ cause and to mobilize opposition to British policies in the towns, villages and rural communities of the colonies. Many members were also affiliated with local branches of the Sons of Liberty, the secret military and political organization that had been instrumental in organizing the Boston Tea Party.
In the year leading up to the War of Independence, Correspondence Committees provided the structure to choose delegates to represent each colony at the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to demand an end to the British repression of colonial freedoms. Local correspondence committees in all the settlements then collaborated with security committees, which were empowered to organize, train and arm provincial militias as needed.
With the outbreak of war on April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord, the Correspondence Committees became the de facto government of the rebel colonies. Although replaced by provincial congresses during the conflict, they continued to operate at the local level.
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Correspondence committees. American Battlefield Trust.
“Correspondence committees: the voice of the patriots. »Boston Tea Party Boats and Museum.
Catherine Treesh. “Correspondence committees”. George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
Benjamin Warford-Johnston. “American Colonial Correspondence Committees: Confronting Oppression, Exploring Unity, and Exchanging Visions of the Future.” The history teacher, Flight. 50, n ° 1 (November 2016)
