Continental Congress

The Continental Congress is the label given to three successive bodies of representatives:

• The First Continental Congress met from September 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774.
• The Second Continental Congress met from May 10, 1775 to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781.
• The Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled ran from March 1, 1781 until the government under the Constitution became operative on March 4, 1789. The membership of the Second Continental Congress automatically carried over to the Congress of the Confederation.

Initially formed to coordinate a common response for several British North American colonies to the Intolerable Acts, the Continental Congress rapidly became the governing body of a military alliance as the dispute with the British government escalated into the American Revolutionary War. Once the war ended, the Congress served as the governing body of the United States of America.