Final answer:
The First Continental Congress's main purpose was to compile a list of grievances against British government policies and draft the Declaration of American Rights, reflecting the colonists' desire for self-governance and resistance to British control.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Purpose of the First Continental Congress
The main purpose of the First Continental Congress was not to raise an army or to draft a declaration of war against Great Britain. It convened as a unified response to the British Parliament’s series of punitive measures known as the “Intolerable Acts.” The delegates from the colonies, with the exception of Georgia, gathered to address and compile a list of grievances against the British government and to draft a Declaration of American Rights. This declaration outlined the fundamental rights they felt were being infringed upon by British policies. Amidst a collective sentiment of resistance, the First Continental Congress was characterized by actions such as denouncing the establishment of the Catholic Church in the Canadian provinces, objecting to the quartering of British troops in colonist homes without consent, and the maintenance of a standing British army during times of peace.
They aimed to highlight the rights they believed were inherent and to assert their objections to British governance. In perhaps its most resolute form of protest, the Congress created the Continental Association of 1774, which would oversee a comprehensive boycott of British goods in the colonies—a clear signal of their commitment to change and self-governance. While the First Continental Congress did not immediately propel the colonies into open conflict, it laid crucial groundwork for the unity and collective action that preceded the Revolutionary War. The delegates were also prescient in their decision to reconvene in one year, after considering the Crown's response—a Second Continental Congress that would indeed assemble amidst the early conflicts of what would become a full-fledged war for independence.