What action did the First Continental Congress take?

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in response to the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. Its main achievement was to issue what became known as the "Association," a nonimportation agreement designed to put pressure on the British to lift the Boston Port Act and to backtrack from other coercive policies. As historian T.H. Breen has recently argued, what was significant about the Association was that local committees were formed to enforce it. These committees ensured, by tactics that sometimes included violence, that local merchants did not engage in trade with the British and that individuals did not purchase or consume imported goods. As Breen points out, these local committees, organized at various levels, "acquired legitmacy from [the First Continental Congress.]" The Association thus marked a major step toward expanding the revolution throughout the colonies and creating a single revolutionary consciousness. For these reasons, the proclamation of the Association by the First Continental Congress was a very significant event.