Peyton Randolph was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress. He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress refers to both the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and at the time, also described the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789. The Confederation Congress operated as the first federal government until being replaced following ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Until 1785, the Congress met predominantly at what is today Independence Hall in Philadelphia, though it was relocated temporarily on several occasions during the Revolutionary War and the fall of Philadelphia.
Benjamin Harrison V was an American planter, merchant, and politician who served as a legislator in colonial Virginia, following his namesakes' tradition of public service. He was a signer of the Continental Association, as well as the United States Declaration of Independence, and was one of the nation's Founding Fathers. He served as Virginia's governor from 1781 to 1784.
Patrick Henry was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
George Mason was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.
The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the American colonies adopted by the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia on October 20, 1774. It was a result of the escalating American Revolution and called for a trade boycott against British merchants by the colonies. Congress hoped that placing economic sanctions on British imports and exports would pressure Parliament into addressing the colonies' grievances, especially repealing the Intolerable Acts, which were strongly opposed by the colonies.
The Virginia Conventions have been the assemblies of delegates elected for the purpose of establishing constitutions of fundamental law for the Commonwealth of Virginia superior to General Assembly legislation. Their constitutions and subsequent amendments span four centuries across the territory of modern-day Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The Orangetown Resolutions were adopted on July 4, 1774, exactly two years prior to the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence. The resolutions were part of a widespread movement of town and county protests of the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774.
The Fincastle Resolutions was a statement reportedly adopted on January 20, 1775, by fifteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Virginia. Part of the political movement that became the American Revolution, the resolutions were addressed to Virginia's delegation at the First Continental Congress, and expressed support for Congress' resistance to the Intolerable Acts, issued in 1774 by the British Parliament.
The Petition to the King was a petition sent to King George III by the First Continental Congress in 1774, calling for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts. The King's rejection of the Petition, was one of the causes of the later United States Declaration of Independence and American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress had hoped to resolve conflict without a war.
Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an American planter and clergyman who also held a Scottish peerage. He was a lifelong friend of George Washington and became the first member of the British peerage to be born in North America after travelling to England and claiming the peerage there. Fairfax was the first cousin once removed of Robert Fairfax, 7th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He lived in Virginia for his entire life, and was the grandson of Henry Fairfax, a son of Henry Fairfax, 4th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. However, it was not until 1800 that he was confirmed in the title by the House of Lords.
David Stuart was a Virginia physician, politician, and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States, he made Stuart one of three commissioners appointed to design a new United States capital city.
Rowan Resolves is the short name for a colonial era document called Resolutions by inhabitants of Rowan County concerning resistance to Parliamentary taxation and the Provincial Congress of North Carolina. It was signed in Salisbury, Rowan County, in the royal Province of North Carolina on August 8, 1774 in response to a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774, the Intolerable Acts, after the political protest against Tea Act in Boston, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, commonly known as Boston Tea Party. Rowan County was the first county in North Carolina to adopt such resolutions in the early stages of American Revolution.
George Washington's political evolution comprised the transformation of a young man from a moderately wealthy family in the British colony of Virginia motivated largely by self-interest, into the first president of the United States and one of the Founding Fathers. Washington was ambitious for the status and influence with which he had been surrounded in a youth spent around his half-brother Lawrence and the influential Fairfax family Lawrence married into. After working as a surveyor, a position he gained with the patronage of the Fairfaxes, Washington sought to emulate his brother's military career with a commission in the Virginia militia, despite his lack of military experience. With the patronage of more influential people, he was appointed major in 1752. The following year, he was appointed special envoy charged with delivering to the French a demand to vacate territory claimed by the British. His successful completion of this task gained him his first measure of renown. Washington was promoted in 1754 and made second-in-command of the Virginia Regiment. He enhanced his reputation with his first military victory in the Battle of Jumonville Glen, a skirmish that ignited the French and Indian War. He was promoted again in 1755 and given command of the regiment, serving until his resignation in 1758. During his military service, Washington grew disillusioned with the British because of his treatment as a second-class citizen and the defensive strategy they adopted during the war. He gained no further opportunity for military honor and failed to achieve his ambition of a royal commission in the British Army.
The Augusta Resolves was a statement adopted on February 22, 1775 by six representatives of Augusta County, Colony of Virginia, in the early stages of the American Revolution. The resolves expressed support for Congress' resistance to the Intolerable Acts, issued in 1774 by the British Parliament, and a commitment to risk 'lives and fortune' in preservation of natural rights.
The Augusta Declaration, or the Memorial of Augusta County Committee, May 10, 1776, was a statement presented to the Fifth Virginia Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia on May 10, 1776. The Declaration announced the necessity of the Thirteen Colonies to form a permanent and independent union of states and national government separate from Great Britain, with whom the Colonies were at war.
William Payne was a Virginia gentleman, vestryman, justice, and Fairfax County sheriff in the late colonial period. He was a supporter of the American Independence movement and a member of the Fairfax County Committee for Safety. In 1755, he had a physical altercation with George Washington over an election issue for the Virginia House of Burgesses which almost resulted in a duel. The two became friends serving together in a number of roles later in life. His eldest son was a pallbearer at Washington’s funeral.
The Loudoun Resolves was a resolution adopted by a committee in Loudoun County in the colony of Virginia on June 14, 1774, during the very early stages of the American Revolution. It was the one of the earliest public declarations objecting to the Intolerable Acts, passed by Parliament to punish Massachusetts Colonists for conducting and supporting the Boston Tea Party. The Loudoun Resolves also was the first colonial document implying its signers would employ force in resisting Britain's use of military power to implement the Acts, which it declared would cause a civil war. Loudoun colonists at the same time declared a boycott of all East India Company products and an end to commerce with England until the Boston Port Act, the first of the Intolerable Acts, was repealed and Parliament abandoned political control of its North American colonies.
