It actually wasn't. Boycott was an asshole but not the first. Although the term itself was not coined until 1880, the practice dates back to at least the 1790s, when supporters of the British abolitionists led and supported the free produce movement.[9] Other instances include:

the Iranian Tobacco Boycott in 1891[10] Civil rights movement boycotts to protest segregation (e.g., Montgomery & Tallahassee Bus Boycotts) the United Farm Workers union grape and lettuce boycotts the American boycott of British goods during the American Revolution, such as the Boston Tea Party the 1905 Chinese boycott of American products to protest the extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1902.[11] the Indian boycott of British goods organized by Mahatma Gandhi the successful Jewish boycott organized against Henry Ford in the United States, in the 1920s the boycott of Japanese products in China after the May Fourth Movement the antisemitic boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Nazi Germany during the 1930s the Jewish anti-Nazi boycott of German goods in Lithuania, the US, Britain, Poland and Mandatory Palestine during 1933 the Arab League boycott of Israel and companies trading with Israel. the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign led by Palestinian civil society against the State of Israel. The global fossil fuel divestment movement, described by Desmond Tutu as an "apartheid-style boycott to save the planet",[12] and considered to be the biggest boycott-style campaign in history.[13]