American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

[NONIMPORTATION AGREEMENTS]. Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser. Vol. III, No. 43. Philadelphia, PA: William Goddard and Benjamin Towne, 20 November 1769.


8pp., folio, 9 1/2 x 12 in. Disbound (partially separated at central fold, chipping, short tears, and some loss at edges, toning, spotting throughout).

The newspaper's front page features three columns of text containing the printing of letters written by the merchants of respectively Marblehead, MA; Providence, RI; and Newport, RI declaring non-importation agreements to boycott British imports because of the Townshend Duties (taxes) levied on the American Colonies by Great Britain. These non-importation declarations by the British North American Colonies mark the organized resistance to British taxes that would lead directly to the American Revolution and the eventual independence of the United States of America. 

The Nonimportation Agreements of 1768 and 1769 were a result of Britain's attempt to find new sources of revenue for colonial defense and administration. Non-importation agreements reached ultimate effect in response to the Townshend Revenue Act, when in 1768 Boston passed an act. To protest Parliament's imposition of taxes on lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea, by 1769 nearly every colony had agreed to boycott British goods. Every port city and nearly every region would soon adopt acts like this one.