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[[File:bostonteaparty.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Image depicting the Boston Tea Party, 1773.]]

The subsequent reaction from London was to further oppress the colonists through a stringent new set of laws Americans called the Intolerable Acts. King George’s wrath was aimed at New England, thus he closed the port of Boston until compensation was made for the lost tea revenue. Through these acts, town meetings in Massachusetts were stifled; the British government appointed council members in New England and lodged soldiers in private homes.<ref>Foner, 180.</ref>Outrage swept not only through New England but throughout all American colonies.

Massachusetts delegates met in September 1774 and concluded that New England taxes would be withheld, preparations for war would be made, and obedience to England would be denied. These resolutions were known as the Suffolk Resolves. To further reinforce solidarity, leaders of all the colonies, except those from Georgia, met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress. The goal of the convention was to coordinate a unified response to the Intolerable Acts<ref>Foner, 181.</ref> This historic meeting did more than coordinate colonial efforts; the concrete unification of a nation transpired. Virginia orator Patrick Henry best described the attitude of the nation when he proclaimed, “‘I am not a Virginian, but an American.’”<ref>Patrick Henry quoted in Foner, 181.</ref> Unwittingly, England had united her once subordinate colonists into a formidable adversary.