Fairfax Resolves - Text Summary and Effect

Text Summary and Effect

In the Resolves, the freeholders expressed a desire to remain subjects of the British Empire, but they insisted that "we will use every means which Heaven hath given us to prevent our becoming its slaves."

The short document provided the following:

• a concise summary of American constitutional concerns on such issues as taxation, representation, judicial power, military matters and the colonial economy
• a proposal for the creation of a nonimportation effort to be levied against British goods
• a call for a general congress of the colonies to convene for the purpose of preserving the Americans' rights as Englishmen
• a condemnation of the practice of importing slaves as an "unnatural trade"; its termination was urged

The Resolves directed Washington and Broadwater to present the resolutions to the Virginia Convention.

The Fairfax Resolves, like the many other similar resolutions passed in county meetings throughout the colonies, summarized the feelings of many colonists in mid-1774 — a conviction that their constitutional rights were being violated by British policies. The Resolves also marked a step forward in inter-colonial cooperation as more Americans began to realize that a threat against one colony was a threat against all. Finally, political rivalries in Virginia were muted to some degree, allowing such figures as Washington and Mason to work productively with the more radical Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and others.

The non-importation protest called for in the Resolves influenced, with some modifications, the Virginia Association, which in turn provided the pattern for the Continental Association.