“One if by land, two if by sea,” is the famous quote that describes a patriot alert system that Paul Revere made famous. On 18 April 1775, friends of Revere placed two lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts. Revere then set out to warn the colonists in Charlestown, Concord and Lexington of approaching British troops.
At dawn the next morning, 19 April 1775, according to Heather Cox Richardson, the British redcoats (“lobster backs”) fired the first shots of what we now call the Revolutionary War. They routed colonial minutemen in the Lexington Common, killing eight.
At that 250th celebration at Old North Church Friday evening, Boston mayor Michele Wu noted that then, as well as now, “freedom is worth fighting for and the fight has arrived.”
At the North Bridge in Concord, however, the tables turned: 100 British regulars met 400 militia men. Both sides suffered casualties, but the redcoats dropped back, rejoining the main British Army.
As the Brits began their return to Boston, more colonial minutemen joined the engagements. Eventually, more than 15,000 American “rebels” from across New England had surrounded Boston, Richardson said.
Why were the colonists fighting?
The King of England had “taken away the right to trial by jury,” Richardson explained. Anyone who violated the Stamp Act (a tax levied without representation) would be judged by the British military, not a jury of their peers. In addition, colonists were having to pay room and board for British soldiers; again, taxation without representation.
Richardson summed the discord: “could the King be checked by the people?”
She said she’s been asked if those men knew they were embarking on the creation of a new nation. “No one knows the future,” she replied. But. But. At each junction, they did “the next right thing, even if it risked their lives.”
“Do the next right thing.”
The time is now.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com