Americans tend to think of our nation’s official break from its English oppressors as having taken place when the Declaration of Independence was passed by the Continental Congress in June 1776. Indeed, today, plans are underway throughout the United Stated to celebrate the 250th anniversary of that singular event in July 2026. Coming up in 2025, we also will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April 1775— the famous “Shot Heard Round the World.” Without taking away anything from the significance of those watershed events in American history, this author submits that the real Declaration of Independence—the real shot heard round the world—took place in 1774, 250 years ago this month.
Just a few months ago, the nation commemorated the famous Boston Tea Party that took place in December 1773. Whether you view that rebellious day as an organized act of resistance, or the work of an angry mob, the English government viewed it as an act of treason, and did its level best to find and capture the culprits (it never did). What the English Parliament did do in reaction to the Tea Party was pass the so-called “Coercive Acts” (also referred to as the “Intolerable Acts”), consisting of four legislative enactments designed to suppress the rebellion in America. The first of them was the infamous “Boston Port Act,” signed into law on March 31, 1774. Among its more onerous terms, the Port Act ordered that the port of Boston be closed until the colonists agreed to reimburse the East India Company (whose tea it was that was destroyed) for the loss or destruction of its property (and also reimburse the Crown for the lost customs duties that was to be paid upon the importation of the tea to the colonies). The Port Act also terminated the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s century-old charter, which had given the province latitude to govern its own affairs, and replaced it with a new charter that transferred authority over key legal and governmental functions to the Crown. As we shall see, these provisions triggered massive resistance by the citizens of Boston, which quickly spread to other colonies, and ultimately led to the Declaration of Independence two years later.
Perhaps Parliament thought that the Port Act would scare Boston colonists into submission. How wrong they were. With the typical slow speed of Trans-Atlantic communications in that era (several weeks in most cases), news of the Port Act did not arrive in Boston until May. Back in England, however, the first shot heard round the world came from the Smyrna Coffee House in London, a gathering place of men of learning with liberal leanings—authors, politicians, scientists, and other note-worthies. It was there that on April 2, 1774—just days after the Port Act was passed—Benjamin Franklin penned an “open letter” attacking Parliament for its precipitous actions. Entitled “An Open Letter to Lord Buckinghamshire,” and published in the London newspaper The Public Advertiser, the tract was signed anonymously by “Fabius,” but in fact authored by Franklin. In his open letter, Franklin scathingly wrote that “the Port of Boston is to be shut; its Trade is to be utterly destroyed; the Inhabitants, about twenty-five thousand in Number, are devoted to Poverty, Hunger and Death,” he wrote, “bringing Thousands of innocent Families to Ruin.”
Franklin rued that Parliament had not exhausted other means of redress, as he believed the people of Boston ultimately would be prepared to compensate the East India Company for the property destroyed by “a wrong-headed Mob.” He lamented that “the Massachusetts Bay would doubtless have paid for the Teas, had it been required of them in the Usual Form,” but Parliament chose the path of oppression. Franklin then turned to bitter sarcasm, saying that “by this Plan also we are certain of securing the Affections of the Colonists: After this signal Proof of Lenity and Kindness, they will never forget us.” If members of Parliament were merely seeking compensation for the destruction of tea, he doubted that they would have adopted the extreme measures in the Port Act. No, Parliament’s intent was far more sinister: it was “to shut up the Port of Boston until the People have engaged or promised to pay all Customs and Duties whatever that may be imposed by a British Parliament”—complete capitulation to the will of Parliament, in other words. Franklin would have none of it, warning that Parliament’s action would lead to violence, if not war:
“You may reduce [American] Cities to Ashes; but the Flame of Liberty in North America shall not be extinguished. Cruelty and Oppression and Revenge shall only serve as Oil to increase the Fire. A great Country of hardy Peasants is not to be subdued.”
Massachusetts colonists first received word of the Port Act in May, when a ship from London arrived with the disastrous news, along with the newly appointed Governor of the Colony, General Thomas Gage, whose governorship would further inflame matters over the course of the next year. As news of the Port Act spread to the rest of the colonies, the uproar grew, as the people of America saw that the implications of the Coercive Acts passed by Parliament were not confined to Boston, but extended to all colonists everywhere in North America. Within months, political leaders in Virginia threw down the gauntlet, passing the “Fairfax Resolves” in July 1774 after a meeting held in Fairfax County, Virginia. The Resolves openly defied the Coercive Acts, and demanded equal rights under the British Constitution; representation in Parliament; no taxation except as determined by the local Virginia government; control over military forces in the Colony; and other measures to protect Virginia’s citizens from the overlords in Parliament. The Resolves also called for a general Congress of the American colonies, “for the preservation of our Lives, Liberties and Fortunes.”
Not to be outdone, the Massachusetts Bay Colony quickly followed suit. On September 9, 1774, political leaders in Suffolk County, Massachusetts (including the City of Boston) passed the “Suffolk Resolves,” which, like the Fairfax Resolves, defied the Coercive Acts and struck back with its own list of demands. Beginning in late August, a convention attended by most of the political leaders of the Bay Colony was held, and the terms of the Suffolk Resolves were hammered out. The first draft was written by Dr. Joseph Warren, a major protagonist in the rebellion along with Samuel Adams (Warren was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill seven months later). Among the terms of the Suffolk Resolves was a provision that closed courts in Suffolk County, whose judges were now appointed by, and paid by, the Crown. The court closures quickly spread to other Massachusetts counties.The Suffolk Resolves also called for a boycott on British imports; for the resignations of government officials appointed by the Crown; for a suspension of the payment of taxes imposed by Parliament; and for the raising of militias to protect the citizens of Suffolk County. All of these resolves were viewed by Parliament as acts of treason.
Many historians credit the Suffolk Resolves as being the pre-cursor of the Declaration of Independence passed by the Second Continental Congress almost two years later. In the meantime, the First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia in September 1774, during which the Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, and passed the “Continental Association” a month later. The Association declared that all British imports must cease starting in December 1774, and that all exports of goods to England should cease in September 1775. To enforce this, the Continental Congress called for the creation of so-called “Committees of Inspection,” with powers to force colonists to sign pledges of loyalty to the Association, and to regulate daily life in ways that were onerous in their own right (no expensive funerals or parties, for example). The bans on imports and exports was not necessarily a surprise, as a number of colonies such as Virginia already had adopted versions of such bans themselves. The First Continental Congress enacted a number of other measures to regulate trade and commerce, as embodied in the Congress’ “Declaration and Resolves.” While these subjects are beyond the scope of this story, suffice to say that the movement towards independence was gaining strength by the time of the passage of the Declaration on October 20, 1774. While a formal declaration of independence was proposed to the Congress, it was rejected, and instead the Congress agreed that it would try again to negotiate an amicable resolution of the issues. Those efforts floundered, and it was just months later that war broke out in Lexington and Concord.
In retrospect, it’s clear that the Boston Port Act, together with the rest of the laws collectively known as the Coercive Acts, provoked the American people into the final phase of a long-simmering dispute with Parliament over the rights of the colonists to govern themselves. The series of events in 1774 described above inescapably show that the American Revolution began long before Lexington and Concord, and long before the Declaration of Independence. The Fairfax Resolves, the Suffolk Resolves, and the Declaration and Resolves, adopted over a four month period beginning in July 1774, unleashed the independence movement in the American Colonies, and ultimately led to the founding of our great nation.