he Boston Port Bill and the intent of the other Intolerable
Acts reached Virginia just as the assembly prepared to meet on May 5,
1774. Public indignation built rapidly even among small planters and
farmers who knew little of the constitutional grievances. They could
not understand the "mailed fist" stance implicit in the acts. With the
necessary legislation out of the way, the house on May 24, 1774
appealed to the public at large to send aid to their blockaded
fellow-colonists in Boston. They then declared June 1st, the day the
Boston port was to be closed, "a day of Public Fasting, Prayer, and
Humiliation." A sense of inter-colonial camaraderie was building. Any
reservations Virginians had about the propriety of the Tea Party was
lost in the furious reaction to the Intolerable Acts. Governor Dunmore
on May 26 dissolved the assembly for its action. He could not prevent
the day of fasting and prayer from occurring on June 1st. Nor could he
halt the determined burgesses.

On May 27th the burgesses reassembled informally in Raleigh Tavern,
elected Speaker Randolph to be their moderator, and formed an
association which was signed by 89 burgesses. At the urging of Richard
Henry Lee, the most ardent exponent of intercolonial action, the
burgesses issued a call for the other colonies to join in a Continental
Congress. They then agreed to reassemble in Williamsburg on August 1st
to elect and instruct delegates to the congress and to formulate plans
for a non-importation, non-exportation agreement to bring total
pressure on British merchants.

It would be a year before Lexington and Concord and two years before
the Declaration of Independence, but the revolution in Virginia had
already begun in the true meaning of John Adams' words "the Revolution
was in the minds and hearts of the people." After May 17 the center of
Virginia government moved from the General Assembly to the Virginia
Conventions. The assembly would meet briefly in June 1775, but the real
"mind and heart" of Virginia would be in the convention.

Part III:

From Revolution to Independence

The First Virginia Convention

[Sidenote: "_He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies
without the consent of our legislatures...._"]

By the time members of the convention gathered in Williamsburg on
August 1 popular opinion for stern action against the Coercive Acts was
unequivocal. From Spotsylvania, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Prince William,
Frederi