American Independence

“This Morning between 1 & 2 O’clock we were alarmed by the ringing of ye Bell.” —April 19, 1775, from the journal of Reverend William Emerson

The first shots of the American Revolution rang out a few hundred yards from this home during the skirmish at the Old North Bridge in 1775. Owned by influential Concord minister Reverend William Emerson and his wife Phebe Bliss, the Reverend recorded his eyewitness account of the chaotic movement of troops and information in the area that day.

Rev. Emerson was called the “patriot pastor” and penned many sermons embodying liberty and independence within these walls. His powerful message referring to being enslaved by England—intolerable, immoral, and a just cause to go to war—helped push Concord towards revolution.

This rhetoric also illustrates a contradiction at the heart of the American Revolution: the fight for freedom and the perpetuation of slavery. Rev. Emerson and Bliss held individuals like Cate, Phyllis, and Frank in bondage while proclaiming these messages of freedom.

Rev. Emerson went on to serve as a Chaplain to the Continental Army and journeyed to Ticonderoga during the war where he died of dysentery in 1776. Thanks to new research and partnerships with historic organizations around Concord, the stories of Cate, Phyllis, and Frank continue to be uncovered and shared with visitors.

When news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord reached Ipswich, it was accompanied by the terrorizing rumors that British soldiers were slaying men, women, and children. Therefore, when two British ships were believed to be stationed at the end of the Ipswich River only a couple of days later, panic ensued.

Word quickly spread that the ships were full of Redcoats preparing to march to free 20 British soldiers held captive in the Ipswich jail. Around 200 men—mostly elderly—were mustered to protect and defend the community. Frightened residents started throwing their best silver into their wells and fleeing north to New Hampshire.

As the rumors spread, other communities joined the panicked evacuation until finally the realization dawned that the “Great Ipswich Fright” was based on baseless rumor and fear. The next day, people began returning to their farms and businesses, worried about what would be next, but panicked no longer.

At the time, Appleton Farms was split into two separate working farms operated by cousins Isaac and Oliver Appleton. Their work included hauling hay, cutting thatch, sawing wood, and selling posts and rails.

While protests and political maneuverings between colonists and Great Britain had upset global trade for nearly a decade, Appleton Farms was largely untouched. The farm’s economy was built upon a century of barter and trade with other Ipswich farmers and merchants, creating a close-knit local economy that was extremely stable.

In 1775, one of Isaac’s sons, Thomas, joined the Continental Army. It is believed he was wounded during his military career, as he was listed in the invalid corps from 1778 through the end of his service in 1780. The Town of Ipswich compensated Thomas for his time in the military in both cash ($830) and goods (corn, rye, cotton, veal, wood, and salt pork).

Defiance to British rule was not strange to the Appleton family. Nearly a century earlier, Major Samuel Appleton—son of the farm’s original owner, Samuel Appleton—was a major figure in the Ipswich Revolt of 1687.

Today, visitors can stop by the Farmhouse, which has stood in the same location since just after the Revolution (c. 1794), and today reflects generations of change.

On June 17, 1775, the first major battle of the American Revolution raged at Bunker Hill in Charlestown. During the battle, red-hot cannon balls were fired by British warships into the town’s wooden buildings, setting them ablaze.

Around 20 miles away in Andover, townspeople climbed to the top of 420-foot Holt Hill—the highest point in Essex County—to watch the town burn. Named for the mid-17th-century settlement of Nicholas Holt, the hill is now the focal point of the Ward Reservation.

In the late 18th century, a bridge spanned the East Branch of the Westfield River here as part of a former post road between Albany, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Stagecoaches often used the bridge, and a toll gate was established on its eastern end.

Following the Battle of Saratoga—a major turning point in the Revolutionary War which saw General John Burgoyne’s Redcoats defeated by the Continental Army—the surviving 6,000 British soldiers marched over this bridge toward Boston.

In 1835, floodwaters swept away the bridge along with nearby gristmills and sawmills. However, visitors today can still see the stone abutments that anchored either end of this bridge.

Shortly before the Revolutionary War, the Shakers—a Protestant sect founded in England—arrived in America.

The utopian religious group was known for their pacifism and had advanced notions of gender and racial equality. While originally viewed with suspicion, the group slowly gathered followers who were drawn to their communal living and beliefs.

The Shakers formed communities throughout the colonies, starting in New York and making their way to Harvard, Massachusetts (their second American settlement). The Shaker Museum which is now nestled within the Fruitlands hillside was originally constructed in the Harvard Shaker Village in 1794 as an office.

Soon after the Shaker Village closed in 1918, Fruitlands Museum founder Clara Endicott Sears purchased and moved the historic Shaker Office to where it now rests. Officially opening in 1922, it would become the nation’s first Shaker Museum which is still open today.

Referenced in early records as Maverick’s Island, Gerry Island was owned in the mid-1700s by Thomas Gerry, but it was his son—Elbridge Gerry—who was a major political player during America’s founding.

Elbridge was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of the Commonwealth, and Vice President to James Madison. He was also a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he helped draft the Bill of Rights.

Despite these achievements, Elbridge Gerry is most known as the inspiration for the term “gerrymandering.” It was during his second term as Governor of Massachusetts that he signed into law a redistricting bill designed to give his political party an advantage in the state senatorial elections.

At 70 years old, Elbridge died in office serving as Vice President to James Madison. The first-ever monument commissioned at the nation’s expense was erected over his grave at the Congressional Cemetary in Washington, D.C. where it stands to this day.

Governor Thomas Hutchinson was the last Royal Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in Boston in 1711 and educated at Harvard, he was a prominent conservative, powerful, and devoutly loyal to the British Crown.

The Governor was charged with upholding British rule in the restless colony in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. He often found himself at great odds with the radical revolutionaries—soon to be patriots—of the day, including Samuel Adams.

Hutchinson built a modest country estate on Milton Hill for his family but fled to England in 1774—shortly after the Boston Tea Party—leaving behind his home and most of his effects. These were confiscated and later sold at auction, but today his writing desk can be seen at the Milton Public Library.

The estate was razed in 1946. All that remains is the field and a “ha-ha” (retaining wall and ditch used as a livestock barrier) that formed the western boundary of the formal garden, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Before the Revolutionary War, a section of the Reservation’s field was part of a famous “Muster Ground.” Plymouth farmers in the militia used this field to assemble and train colonial Minutemen companies in the lead-up to the war.

In the 18th century, this home was the center of social, economic, and political life in the Berkshires. It’s likely that the Sheffield Resolves—a precursor to the Declaration of Independence—were drafted in the upstairs study in 1773.

The home’s owner, Colonel John Ashley, moderated the Resolves and later backed the Continental Army financially while his son fought as a colonel with the 1st Berkshire Regiment. While the Ashleys and other white colonists passionately argued for freedom, they also enslaved individuals in their homes and businesses.

These enslaved individuals included: Brom, Caesar, Harry, John Sheldon, Adam Mullen, Zach Mullen, Elizabeth Freeman (then called “Bett”), and her daughter Betsey Freeman.

It’s believed Elizabeth may have heard about the Resolves, which spoke of all mankind as “equal, free and independent of each other.” When similar language was included in the Massachusetts Constitution, she sought a lawyer, sued for her freedom (alongside Brom), and prevailed. Elizabeth’s courage and determination helped abolish the institution in slavery in Massachusetts.

As a free person, “Bett” changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman and lived out the rest of her long life as a beloved member of the community of Stockbridge, MA.

Photo provided by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

The Stockbridge Mohicans fought in the colonial militia with their white neighbors even before the mission was established in 1734. They answered the patriotic call to arms within days of the first shots of the Revolution being fired at Concord.

They served as scouts and warriors at Bunker Hill, Bennington, Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and all around the northeast. Seventeen Mohicans died in the war, most during the massacre at Kingsbridge, including the prominent sachem Daniel Ninham. General George Washington sponsored an ox roast in Stockbridge to honor their sacrifice.

Before and during the war, Native community members—including these veterans—were stripped of their land rights, forcing many to move away from their homeland.

Today, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians is telling their own story, in their own words, on their ancestral land through ongoing exhibitions at The Mission House. The Trustees is committed to building respectful relations with the Community.