Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress's September–October 1774 meetings. Delegates from twelve of Britain's thirteen American colonies gathered at Carpenters' Hall to coordinate their response to the Coercive Acts, which punished Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party.
Philadelphia was already a major political and commercial center. It had hosted the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and later became the meeting place for the Second Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
The First Continental Congress did not declare independence. Instead, it adopted the Continental Association, petitioned King George III, and agreed to reconvene if its grievances were not addressed. Georgia was the only colony that did not send delegates, although it later joined the revolutionary movement.
A common mix-up is confusing the First Continental Congress with the Second Continental Congress, which began meeting in Philadelphia in May 1775, after fighting had started at Lexington and Concord.