Association

ASSOCIATION. Various "associations" were created after 1763 as a means of organizing and testing political strength. These groups were particularly important in helping the resistance movement expand and endure. American activists who opposed the imperial government's attempt to increase its control over the colonies used associations to bring together like-minded citizens and to concert opposition within and among the colonies, as well as to intimidate those who might otherwise have supported the new British measures. People who subscribed to the goals of an association were known as "associators."

Members of the recently dissolved Virginia House of Burgesses, led by George Washington, adopted on 18 May 1769 a voluntary nonimportation agreement banning British goods on which a duty was charged (except paper), slaves (after 1 November), and many European luxuries. A month later, on 22 June, the reconvened burgesses agreed that local committees would publish the names of those who had violated the agreement. On the same day, a Maryland provisional convention drew up an association that already had a provision for boycotting those who would not make a similar compact. Other colonies and individual port towns followed suit.

The first Continental Congress adopted the Continental Association on 20 October 1774 as a response to the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts; it was modeled after the Virginia Association. After expressing loyalty and enumerating grievances, the document set out a framework the delegates hoped would pressure the imperial government to abandon the "ruinous system of colony administration" it had followed since 1763: "To obtain redress of these grievances which threaten destruction to the lives, liberty, and property of his Majesty's subjects, in North America, we are of opinion, that a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure" (Jensen, Documents, p. 813). The nonimportation of "any goods, wares, or merchandise whatsoever" from Great Britain or Ireland was to take effect on 1 December 1774. The nonexportation of American products was delayed until 10 September 1775 to allow merchants in Britain and the West Indies time to exert pressure on Parliament. Congress threatened to discontinue the slave trade, more as an economic lever than as a moral stance, and urged Americans to practice "frugality, economy, and industry, and promote agriculture, arts, and the manufactures of this country, especially that of wool." To promote a reformation of values and assert the virtuousness of its resistance, Congress also asked Americans to "discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially all horse-racing and all kinds of gaming," and it recommended that mourning dress be scaled back to demonstrate both frugality and virtue. Congress wanted committees "chosen in every county, city, and town by those who are qualified to vote for representatives to the legislature … attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this Association" and expected the committees of correspondence in each colony to "inspect the entries of their custom houses" and inform each other of those who violated the agreement. By April 1775 some form of the Association was operating in twelve colonies; Georgia had adopted a modified version on 23 January 1775.

The Continental Association had an immediate and important impact. It has been estimated that the value of British goods imported into the colonies dropped by over 90 percent between 1774 and 1775. Desperate English merchants put pressure on Parliament to promote reconciliation with the colonies; they were worried not only by the decline in business, but also by the fact that if war broke out they would never collect the large sums owed them by American planters. Parliament did not comply because, in its opinion, the dispute with the colonies had gone beyond economic considerations to questions of authority and obedience. For Americans, the Association was "a major step in the development of revolutionary political organizations." Opponents of the imperial government generally controlled "the committees created in every community to enforce the Association" and used the Association to force Americans "to choose between support of the proposals of Congress and obedience to the laws of Parliament" (ibid., p. 813).

Other associations of a different nature began to be organized in early 1775. Unlike those created for commercial retaliation, these promoted armed opposition to Britain.

SEE ALSO Nonimportation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jensen, Merrill, ed. English Historical Documents, Volume IX: American Colonial Documents to 1776. David C. Douglas, general editor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Van Schreeven, William J., comp. Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence. Edited by Robert L. Scribner. Vol. 1. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1973.

                               revised by Harold E. Selesky