Jim Bish, Revolutionary War historian, and President of Culpeper Minutemen Chapter VASSAR, will reveal the importance of the many local Resolves that were penned in the summer of 1774, especially in the middle Atlantic States of Maryland and Virginia. The local commitment against the actions of England became paramount in the success of the Revolution. Local residents reacted to the probable abolition of their rights by the British. This democratic action was the first step to declaring independence two years later. In doing so, the county freeholders and inhabitants bought into the upcoming struggle while producing a purely democratic set of documents which show a united clarity of purpose. Their collective local actions and their statements, county by county, have rarely been duplicated, previously or since. Virginia and Maryland produced the most comprehensive set of resolves compared to anywhere in the colonies leading up to the Revolutionary War. These resolves fortified their commitment to the ever-strengthening common cause of America. During the 1774 summer of discontent, the Royal Governor’s actions helped to unify Virginians and Marylanders for war, something that Massachusetts and the other colonies needed in the following years.
