after the first day of _November_ next, either from _Africa_, the _West
Indies_, or any other place."[9]

In South Carolina, at the convention July 6, 1774, decided opposition to
the non-importation scheme was manifested, though how much this was due
to the slave-trade interest is not certain. Many of the delegates wished
at least to limit the powers of their representatives, and the
Charleston Chamber of Commerce flatly opposed the plan of an
"Association." Finally, however, delegates with full powers were sent to
Congress. The arguments leading to this step were not in all cases on
the score of patriotism; a Charleston manifesto argued: "The planters
are greatly in arrears to the merchants; a stoppage of importation would
give them all an opportunity to extricate themselves from debt. The
merchants would have time to settle their accounts, and be ready with
the return of liberty to renew trade."[10]


27. ~The Action of the Continental Congress.~ The first Continental
Congress met September 5, 1774, and on September 22 recommended
merchants to send no more orders for foreign goods.[11] On September 27
"Mr. Lee made a motion for a non-importation," and it was unanimously
resolved to import no goods from Great Britain after December 1,
1774.[12] Afterward, Ireland and the West Indies were also included, and
a committee consisting of Low of New York, Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Lee
of Virginia, and Johnson of Connecticut were appointed "to bring in a
Plan for carrying into Effect the Non-importation, Non-consumption, and
Non-exportation resolved on."[13] The next move was to instruct this
committee to include in the proscribed articles, among other things,
"Molasses, Coffee or Piemento from the _British_ Plantations or from
_Dominica_,"--a motion which cut deep into the slave-trade circle of