History Brief: The Albany Plan of Union and Committees of Correspondence

This is a remake of our original Albany Plan of Union and Committees of Correspondence video, which had bad audio. Teachers, get our American Revolution workbook here:

****

Check out our TpT store

Check out our website

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

***

One important element that led to the War for Independence was a growing sense of unity among the thirteen colonies. In the decades prior to the Revolutionary War, a series of meetings and agreements between colonial leaders laid the foundation for a framework that led to American independence.

The Albany Plan of Union was a 1754 proposal aimed at building a union of the colonies under a single government. The French and Indian War had just begun, and many argued that the Albany Union was justified to coordinate a defense against the alliance of French and Indian forces threatening the American colonies. The Union was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, and it marked the first time in the 1700s that colonial representatives met to discuss a plan for creating a formal union. Seven colonies sent delegates, with Georgia and Delaware opting not to attend.

The delegates agreed to Franklin’s proposal and copies of the Albany Plan were sent to colonial assemblies and the British Board of Trade in London. The plan was rejected by colonial leaders and the British Government, who, weary of their colonies’ growing independent drive, told them to concentrate on raising armies and constructing forts to defend their territory. Although the Albany Plan of Union did not go into effect, many of Franklin’s ideas were revived and later implemented into the Articles of Confederation and even the U.S. Constitution.

Once the French and Indian War concluded, the relationship between Britain and its colonies quickly soured. The Albany Plan had included a system in which the American colonies could have funded the war through a series of taxes, but Parliament instead chose to fund the war through the British Treasury. At the conclusion of the conflict, the British intended to raise the funds from the colonies through a new series of direct taxation.

Americans resented the efforts by King George III and Parliament to exert authority over the colonies. Committees of Correspondence were organized by colonial leaders, and they coordinated resistance to British policies, enforcing colonial boycotts against British goods and informing one another of British abuses of power in each American Colony. The intricate network of communication went even further in creating a partnership and camaraderie that stretched from Georgia to Massachusetts.

The Committees of Correspondence helped in setting up the First Continental Congress and served vital roles in the Revolutionary War by rallying opposition to British maneuvers, establishing a far-reaching spy network, and maintaining political union among the colonies.

An estimated 8,000 colonists served on these committees at the colonial and local levels, becoming the true leaders of the American resistance by encouraging patriotism and resistance to British Imperialism.