(December 16, 1773), followed just three years after the Boston Massacre, where five Americans were killed by British soldiers who were commandeering homes. The British then began imposing on the Colonies taxation, which eventually became unbearable.
Early in the year of 1773, the men of Marlborough, Massachusetts, declared unanimously:
Death is more eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and liberties … [We] implore the Ruler above the skies, that He would make bare His arm in defense of His Church and people, and let Israel go.1689
The Colonists in Boston responded to the intolerable taxes imposed by the British. A band of citizens, disguised as Indians, threw the cargo of 342 chests of tea from a British East India Company ship into the Boston Harbor.
In 1774, the Parliament of Great Britain decided to blockade the Boston harbor by passing the Boston Port Bill, thus destroying all trade and effectively starving the inhabitants of the city.
The Committee of Correspondence sent word of their plight to the rest of the Colonies, who responded by calling for a Day of Fasting and Prayer on June 1, 1774, (the day the blockade would begin). This was done in order:
… to seek divine direction and aid.1690
The towns, cities and surrounding Colonies began sending their support. In August of 1774, William Prescott led the men of Pepperell, Massachusetts, to deliver many loads of rye. He wrote to the men of Boston:
We heartily sympathize with you, and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort and relief; knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock. We consider we are all embarked in [the same ship] and must sink or swim together. We think if we submit to these regulations, all is gone.
Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure, that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity. … Now if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed?. …
Let us all be of one heart, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; and may he, of his infinite mercy grant us deliverance out of all our troubles.1691
The inhabitants of Boston responded to this encouraging support by declaring:
The Christian sympathy and generosity of our friends through the Continent cannot fail to inspire the inhabitants of this town with patience, resignation, and firmness, while we trust in the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that he will graciously hear our cries, and in his time free us from our present bondage and make us rejoice in his great salvation.1692
Josiah Quincy, the American orator of freedom, voiced the Colonists’ sentiments in 1774:
Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a “halter” intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.1693
The Colonists grew in their resilience and confidence in God, to the point where one Crown-appointed Governor wrote of the condition to the Board of Trade back in England:
If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.1694
The Committees of Correspondence soon began sounding the cry across the Colonies:
No King but King Jesus!1695
As a result of this crisis, the Colonies joined together in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress on September 5, 1774.1696
On October 22, 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which met in Boston, began to voice their serious concerns, as President John Hancock declared:
We think it is incumbent upon this people to humble themselves before God on account of their sins, for He hath been pleased in His righteous judgement to suffer a great calamity to befall us, as the present controversy between Great Britain and the Colonies.
[And] also to implore the Divine Blessing upon us, that by the assistance of His grace, we may be enabled to reform whatever is amiss among us, that so God may be pleased to continue to us the blessings we enjoy, and remove the tokens of His displeasure, by causing harmony and union to be restored between Great Britain and the Colonies.1697
In 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress issued a Resolution to the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay:
Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.1698
In 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress reorganized the Massachusetts militia, providing that over one-third of all new regiments be made up of “Minutemen.” The Minutemen, known as such because they would be ready to fight at a minute’s notice, would drill as citizen soldiers on the parade-ground, then go to the church to hear exhortation and prayer. Many times the deacon of the church, or even the pastor, would lead the drill. They proclaimed, “Our cause is just” and believed it was their Christian duty to defend it.1699 The Massachusetts Provincial Congress charged the minutemen:
You … are placed by Providence in the post of honor, because it is the post of danger. … The eyes not only of North America and the whole British Empire, but of all Europe, are upon you. Let us be, therefore, altogether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbecoming our characters as Americans, as citizens and Christians, be justly chargeable to us.1700