Happy Patriots Day!

Every year American patriots reflect on the long hard battle for our country’s freedom that began in earnest in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay on this day in 1775. Most know and have heard about the Battles of Lexington and Concord, however there were skirmishes in Lincoln, Menotomy, known as Arlington today, and Cambridge – a path from Concord back to Boston. Colonial militias won the day, beating the most feared and formable military in the world.

Please take the day and reflect on the founding of our nation. It is easy to do a DuckDuckGo search (screw Google) and find a treasure trove of history online. If anyone is up for a learning challenge you can research the long train of abuses and usurpations, the patriots’ responses and other events leading to our freedom:

Acts of Trade and Navigation – 1660
Wool Act - 1699
Hat Act – 1732
Molasses Act - 1733
Iron Act – 1750
Currency Act - 1751
French and Indian War (Seven Years War) - 1756 and 1763
Royal Proclamation of 1763
Sugar Act – 1764
Currency Act – 1764
Quartering Act – 1765
Stamp Act – 1765
Declaratory Act – 1766
Revenue Act – 1766
Free Port Act – 1766
Townshend Acts:

Bonus: Take note of how some of the preceding acts and events were so egregious that they were still matters of concern when the Bill of Rights were ratified in 1791. Detail specific colonial American experiences and events that lead to the slow loss of freedoms and eventual inclusion of those freedoms in the Bill of Rights. For example, The Quarter Act of 1774 aligns with the Third Amendment.

Above all, take this day and contemplate the rights you once had that have been diminished by elected and unelected tyrannical government officials. Renew yourself with vigor and remain an American Patriot!

Lest we forget:

William H. Hallahan, “The Day the American Revolution Began:19 April 1775”

“In the early morning hours of Wednesday, April 19, 1775, British troops crossed Boston Harbor with the intention of marching to Concord, Massachusetts to seize military supplies stored in the town by Patriot militiamen. Anticipating the British actions, an alarm was raised throughout the countryside by American silversmith Paul Revere and dozens of other riders who warned the colonial militia and minutemen that the regulars were on the road to Concord. By 5 am, the simmering tensions between the American colonists and the British government would reach their breaking point. The events of April 19 would change the world forever.

Captain Parker ordered the drummer to beat a call to arms. Then he assembled his militia unit-now seventy-seven strong-and lined it up in two ranks along the Lexington green. He was an experienced officer with combat experience who understood that the regulars would immediately take this posture as a challenge. That he meant to do battle was indicated in his instructions to the troops: ‘Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.’

The militiamen stood in silence in the gathering light of dawn. The stirring birds called in the trees, and the odor of fresh-turned earth and apple blossoms hung in the air. Small knots of onlookers stood about on the common. Women and children peered from the windows of the houses around the green. Dorothy Quincy continued her vigil in the second-floor bedroom of the Clarke house.

All listened for the sound of British boot soles. It was five A.M.”

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