The Second Continental Congress, convened on May…
May 1775 CE
The Second Continental Congress, convened on May 10, 1775, elects John Hancock president, and creates its own committee of correspondence to communicate the American interpretation of events to foreign nations.
The First Continental Congress had sent entreaties to King George III to stop the Coercive Acts; they had also created the Continental Association to establish a coordinated protest of those acts, putting a boycott on British goods.
The Second Continental Congress meets to plan further responses if the British government had not repealed or modified the acts; however, the American Revolutionary War has already started by this time with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Congress is called upon to take charge of the war effort.
Delegates from the thirteen colonies vote unanimously to support New England in barring the Redcoats from the countryside; the Congress bans trade with Canada on May 17.