Commentary
In 1774, discontented Americans from 12 of the Thirteen Colonies gathered at a Continental Congress to discuss their grievances against rule from London and to consider joint action against the British government. They dispatched letters to those colonies that had not sent delegates to join them—Quebec, Saint John’s Island (now Prince Edward Island), Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida, and West Florida—at a second meeting the next year.
Quebec was of special concern to the rebel Americans. New Englanders, in particular, disliked the power of the Catholic Church in the province and had long memories of cross-border raids when the territory was a French holding. The fact that there was no democratic assembly in Quebec and all power lay in the hands of an appointed governor made many suspicious that the British wished to impose that model on other colonies. The rebels also resented the new borders of Quebec in the west, which seemed to prevent intrusion into native lands by expansion-minded colonists in Virginia and Pennsylvania….