Sheffield Declaration

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Sheffield Declaration, as printed in The Massachusetts Spy

The Sheffield Declaration, also known as the Sheffield Resolves, was a Colonial American petition against British tyranny and manifesto for individual rights, drawn up as a series of resolves approved by the Town of Sheffield, Massachusetts, on January 12, 1773 and printed in The Massachusetts Spy, Or, Thomas’s Boston Journal on February 18, 1773. It is said that the meeting took place in the Colonel John Ashley House. The resolves were written by Theodore Sedgwick.^[1]

[edit] References

^ James M. Banner, Jr.. "Sedgwick, Theodore"; American National Biography Online, February 2000.

[edit] Further reading

Brown, Richard D. "Massachusetts Towns Reply to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, 1773". The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 22-39.

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Political origins of the American Revolution

American resolves, declarations, petitions, essays and pamphlets prior to the Declaration of Independence (July 1776)

Following the
Stamp Act (1765)

Virginia Resolves (May 1765) · Declaration of Rights and Grievances (October 1765)

Responses to the
"Boston pamphlet" (1772)

Sheffield Declaration (January 1773)

Following the
Intolerable Acts (1774)

Maryland	Chestertown Resolves (May 1774) · Bush River Resolution (March 1775)

Massachusetts	Suffolk Resolves (September 1774)

New York	Orangetown Resolutions (July 1774)

North Carolina	Charlottetown or Mecklenburg Resolves (May 1775) · Liberty Point Resolves (June 1775) · Tryon Resolves (August 1775) · Halifax Resolves (April 1776)

Virginia	Fairfax Resolves (July 1774) · Hanover Resolves (July 1774) · Fincastle Resolutions (January 1775) · Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 1776)

Issued by the
Continental Congress

1st Congress	Declaration and Resolves (October 1774) · Articles of Association (October 1774) · Petition to the King (October 1774)

2nd Congress	Olive Branch Petition (July 1775) · Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 1775) · Lee Resolution (July 1776)

Essays and pamphlets

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767) · A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774) · Novanglus (1775) · Common Sense (1776) · Thoughts on Government (1776)