Minuteman National Historical Park, Lexington & Concord, Massachusetts
I was eleven years old for America’s bicentennial in 1976. That’s an incredibly impressionable age, and the festivities left a significant mark on me that lasted my whole life. I remember the Tall Ship parades in New York and Boston harbors; the bicentennial parade in Washington; and the general feeling of pride and patriotism across the nation. A field trip took us to see “1776” in our local cinema, and being good Massachusetts boys & girls, we applauded when William Daniels as John Adams rose to sign the Declaration during the final, climactic moment. I even lobbied to rename our candlepin bowling team to “Minutemen”, although I was heavily outvoted (being the worst bowler in the entire league didn’t give me any cred).
The Battle of Lexington and Concord reached mythic levels in my home state, the “shot heard ‘round the world” even hit Schoolhouse Rock. For natives, it’s second only to the Battle of Bunker Hill, which is actually the Battle of Breed’s Hill (if anyone from Massachusetts fails to correct this in conversation, they might be an extraterrestrial). What they might not correct, for many still misunderstand, is who the famed Minutemen actually were.
The great misconception is the Minutemen were a ragtag bunch of citizen soldiers. That does them a great injustice. First of all, many of these men were veterans of the French & Indian War (aka the Seven Years’ War in European parlance). They knew how to fight, knew how to respond quickly to tense situations, and (being on the receiving end many a time), understood guerrilla tactics. They continually trained in their home towns, keeping their muskets ever at the ready. They were also readying for conflict with the British regulars, having established many caches of weapons and ammo throughout New England. Meanwhile, the British Regulars (the “Redcoats”) weren’t as seasoned. The European theater of the Seven Year’s War took a significant toll on the British army, most Regulars serving in North America were new recruits, or even victims of impressment. They had little, if any, personal commitment to the causes of Britain, especially regarding a foreign land across an ocean. The Minutemen, however, knew the stakes.
The Colonials weren’t just sparring over Stamp Acts and Intolerable Acts and tea parties, there was another existential threat hovering out there, driving them towards rebellion. Another British colony, fully subjugated, treated it’s citizenry as no better than serfs. No property rights, the results of their labor exported to the mother country, and beset with near-famine conditions that took nearly 400,000 lives in the 18th century. Ben Franklin learned of the conditions in Ireland, and made it his mission to inform everyone in the Colonies of those travesties.
Franklin’s missives did not sit well in Massachusetts: with its shipbuilding and mercantile industries, it was the wealthiest colony per capita. Most of the population were property owners, owning the land on which they farmed, and keeping or selling the fruit of their labors as they saw fit. These Minutemen, therefore, had everything to lose if King George had his way. It’s no surprise that when the word spread to the surrounding towns and farms that the Redcoats were on the move, 4,000 Minutemen showed up to defend the town of Concord. Thousands more were on their way, from the western counties as well as neighboring Connecticut and Rhode Island. New Englanders were dead serious about defending their rights, that’s for damned sure.
With stories like that, it’s no surprise this Massachusetts boy would grow up with a strong sense of patriotism. I’ve held onto the presumed American ideals as best as anyone can into adulthood. The principles of liberty, freedom, equality, perseverance, and the continual effort to make things better for all have been more important in my life than anything I picked up in parochial school. I have to admit, though, the events of the past ten years are straining these principles, and draining that sense of patriotism.
It’s been said that a country is only as good as its people, and in a democracy, that’s doubly, or even trebly, so. We can complain about the process, or the back-room dealings limiting our choices, or the oligarchs using their financial abundance to hold their thumb on the scale, but in the end, we still have choices, quite likely the most choice any people has ever had in determining their country’s direction in all of human history. Yet what did we do with this power of choice? Elect a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president; whose first term was the most corrupt administration of the modern era; who inspired a riot in Washington, D.C., where his followers attacked police officers with flagpoles and smeared their shit on the walls of the Capital.
The Minutemen marshaled to fight for their freedom and keep their families out of serfdom. Two hundred and fifty years later, MAGA fights for the “right” to strip jobs from minorities under an “anti-woke” agenda; to strip the right to control their own person from millions of women; and for masked men to beat up immigrants and shoot protestors dead in the streets. Oh the difference a couple of centuries makes ….
Recently, I’ve felt some of my patriotism returning. I’ve been reminded the last election was won by a plurality of votes, not a majority, that provides a wee bit of comfort. Current presidential approval ratings are in the toilet, the worst of any president at this stage of their presidency since modern polling began. This is mostly because of the economy, of course, and not any of those high-fallutin’ concepts of “liberty”, but I’ll take it as a win. Cracks are certainly showing in the MAGA coalition, with some senators even showing some backbone by pushing back on the $1.8B MAGA slush fund. Maybe these are signs Congress might return to doing their fundamental check-and-balance duties.
I guess there’s some hope out there. Slim, I suppose, but better than none. I’ll take it.
[Sadly, I did not have a digital camera when I visited Minute Man National Historical Park. Pictures posted are not mine]
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Links:
Minute Man National Historical Park: https://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm
1976 Boston Parade of Sail: https://youtu.be/1opx0W_PbBQ
“Sit Down, John!”: https://youtu.be/dYDxyIzPe98
Bliain an Áir, the Irish Famine of 1740-41: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Famine_(1740%E2%80%931741)
Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World, George C. Daughan, 2018: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073VX9CP1
The Exotic Mysteries of Candlepin Bowling: https://www.thesportofbowling.com/blog/candlepin-bowling/
After a series of mixed-result battles throughout South Carolina, bold Lord Cornwallis (descendant of barons and earls and nephew of archbishops and governors) lightened the load of his armies by abandoning equipment and supplies, and led them all into North Carolina in hot pursuit of the fleet-of-foot Continentals led by that much-beloved Quaker, General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. A brave and very astute commander, Greene’s motto became “we fight, get beat, rise, and fight again”, directly copying a strategy made famous by Fabius Maximus centuries earlier: war through attrition.
It all started with the settlement of interior North America. The French got their first and got busy. By the mid-18th century they had settlements from modern-day Quebec down the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. They also had spots on the Ohio River and other tributaries. They were in a pretty good position actually, but their settlers were more concerned with fur trapping and trade than continental domination. The Seven Years’ War with England (called the French and Indian War by us Yanks) came along, the French got beat pretty badly and, in the Treaty of Paris, England gained possession of all those forts. Of course, the Brits being the Brits, they figured they could just plop some redcoats in the forts and claim lordship over the lands. The French settlers still worked their farms, collected fur pelts, and paddled up & down the river in trade like they had for a generation, while theoretically under British “control”.
America In Context 