REVOLUTIONARY WAR DOCUMENT - 1774 SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT - BROADSIDE

 Up for auction is an extremely rare Revolutionary War document with more than 60 signatures from the town of Attleborough, Massachuaetts. The document fresh from a Massachusetts estate is known as the "1774 SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT"  and is dated July 13, 1774. In the spring and summer of 1774, news had reached Boston that Britain's Parliament had enacted a number of measures in retaliation for the Tea Party of late 1773.  Known in the colonies as the "Intolerable Acts", these most notably closed the port of Boston, revoked the colony’s charter, and outlawed town meetings. Outraged, Samuel Adams and his colleagues in the Boston committee of correspondence considered a non-importation pledge known as the "Solemn League and Covenant".*   The Covenant called for its signers to halt the purchase of British goods after August 31 and, further, to stop dealing with those who did not sign.  The document was fiercely resisted by area merchants.  In addition, there was growing sentiment amongst Bostonians toward waiting for a more comprehensive, inter-colony non-importation agreement.  Although Adams ultimately managed to find support at the Boston town meeting in late June, it did not come easily.  In an effort to swing around the Boston opposition, Adams and the committee of correspondence sent the document into the surrounding countryside via the network formed by each town's committee of correspondence.  Apparently, many towns found it difficult to support the action, and those who did usually made modifications to the language on the printed form they received from Boston. In the end, the effort was eclipsed in the fall of '74 by similar actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Attleboro was one of the towns that supported the pledge. No changes were made to the document with the exception of the date which was changed from June to July. This original document consists of a printed section and a blank section for signatures. The document contains 66 signatures of which all but a few are perfectly legible. Part of the document containing some signatures is missing. This document is now in two pieces, the printed piece with signatures which measures approx. 8 x 16 1/2 inches and the piece with just signatures which measures approx. 8 x 8 1/2 inches.  This is an extraordinarily rare piece of American history and very few of these  "1774 Solemn League and Covenant" documents exist and I don't believe there are any in private hands! With the exception of the tear at the bottom and the missing piece this Attleborough "Covenant" is in a very good state of preservation. This document is an extremely rare piece of American History! As with all of my rare items I am starting this auction at $9.99 with NO RESERVE! All my items come with a 100% money back guarantee! PLEASE SEE MY OTHER AUCTIONS FOR OTHER REVOLUTIONARY WAR RELATED ITEMS!