Might have something to do with this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=xY_RAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA413
“The inhabitants of Virginia were controlled by the central authority on a subject of still more vital importance to them and their posterity. Their halls of legislation had resounded with eloquence directed against the terrible plague of negro slavery. Again and again they had passed laws, restraining the importations of negroes from Africa; but their laws were disallowed. How to prevent them from protecting themselves against the increase of the overwhelming evil was debated by the King in Council, and on the tenth day of December, 1770, he issued an instruction, under his own hand, commanding the Governor, “upon pain of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law, by which the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed.”
Thank you for posting a copy of this “Act” done by the First Continental Congress. I have lived 78 years, and must say I have never heard of it. It has never been offered to me for study, either. What a find! Now I will try to put it into the sequence of President Jefferson’s Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and finally our 1788 Constitution.
What a magnificent list of signatories. I remember reading about the Intolerable Acts passed by British Parliament and their references in the Declaration.
Political leaders are always trying to control trade. History repeats. We are today witnessing a sort of trade war with China, and the Dow Jones lost 750 points or so.
Thank you again very much for your thoughtful post!