Posted on 10/13/2023 10:37:59 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
Happy Friday! What has just happened, I don't have the words to fully convey my excitement about this. This morning the biography written by Richard Frothingham, Jr. about General Joseph Warren has been completed and published!
Life and Times of Joseph Warren The summary is as follows:
Joseph Warren was one of the popular leaders of Boston during the early stage of the American Revolution. He grasped its basis idea of civil freedom, and aimed to impress on the public mind its dignity and glory. By ten years of devotion to the patriot cause, he rose to be the head of public affairs in Massachusetts, and became one of the most prominent characters of New England. Warren, through life, was a man of action, whose words were deeds. To repel the aggressions of arbitrary power, and to maintain the principles of liberty, he wrote in the political journals, was zealous in the private clubs, and was a leader in the public meetings. - Summary by Richard Frothingham
Unlike some of the other books I am working on which are group projects with the hopes of expediency, this reader took their time and recorded a solo audiobook, which are always in my opinion the best quality.
We live in an America where progressives erase our history in order to gain an advantage for themselves. Who just sits back and lets the progressives do this? Not us! American history is so vibrant and it is so valuable, that it deserves to be enshrined on places like YouTube(as of now, this book has yet to be released on the Librivox YT page) and if people can't make time to stop and read a book, we will add convenience and value and read it to them. This book needs to be held up, promoted, and given to as many people as can be reached.
Thank you.
I am more grateful to you than I can adequately express, because without your suggestion and encouragement, I have no doubt this, unique, interesting, and informative book would have ever crossed my path.
It has taken nearly a year for me to read this, partially because in my rough estimation, it took me at least four hours of work to produce one hour of audio, and partially because I still hold a demanding full time job working up to sixty or more hours a week. I had to foreswear dictating it for about four months due to the exigency of my work circumstances.
But it was well worth the time, because the book revealed to me the nature and contribution of this much-forgotten man in the improbable creation of this nation.
He was 35 years old at the time of his death when he took a bullet to the head in the Battle of Bunker Hill (known as Breed's Hill by the Colonials, where the battle was actually fought)and he was the youngest of the men whose names we all know and venerate, John Adams, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock.
He was formally trained as a physician, and his overall educational level and grasp of it were, in that day, what made his role well suited to him.
He had two personalities he had to embrace in his roles...one was the professional, educated, calm voice of reason that allowed him to communicate across all classes and political spectrums in a way that Samuel Adams, the well known back-room man for the Patriots, could not have accomplished. He could speak peer-to-peer with the Tory citizenry, the Patriots, government officials on all sides, and military men on the British side with the calm, reasoned eloquence that all he spoke to from every quarter could relate to and understand, and as a result, determine he was a man who expressed himself in straightforward fashion that people of that day found worthy of trust. They might disagree with him, but he was able to establish broad, well spoken connections. Think of him as the educated counterpart of Paul Revere, whose strength was that he had close connections across the entire spectrum of Colonial life, and could easily and adroitly mingle with stevedores on the wharves as well as he could with men in high society like John Hancock. Dr. Joseph Warren was more highly educated than Revere, spoke "their" (the ruling class) language, and was well respected everywhere. The other role was the passionate, hardworking patriot whose rhetoric and actions set the stage for all Patriots to embrace and unite them against tyranny.
He was on the ground at The Boston Massacre in 1770 and treated the wounded and dying, and had been there in the role of both Patriot and Physician, as Frothingham described, including a section from Joseph Warren's famous oration on the subject:
Warren, early on the ground to act the good physician as well as the fearless patriot, gives the impression produced on himself and his co-laborers as they saw the first blood flowing that was shed for American liberty. "The horrors," he says, " of that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts. Language is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls,when our streets were stained with the blood of our brethren, when our ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented by the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead.... Our hearts beat To arms!' we snatched our weapons, almost resolved, by one decisive stroke, to avenge the death of our slaughtered brethren,and to secure from future danger all that we held most dear."
In 1774, after the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts had been implemented, Joseph Warren authored the famous Suffolk Resolves that spelled out, not only to the Colonials up and down the Eastern Seaboard, but to the British Crown who read it just what would bring the Colonials back into the fold, ad what would happen if the Crown didn't comply:
After that, as April 1775 drew closer with each passing year, month, and day, Warren was the main voice in the "Committee of Correspondence", the glue that held not only all the towns in Massachusetts together via Dr. Warren's direction, oversight, and clear direction, but all of New England as well as all of the Colonies together.
Dr. Warren set the tone to avoid having the Colonials instigate the revolution by reckless action. He set down the guidelines, in the place of a Colonial government that did not yet exist, to govern behavior among the Colonials to avoid unnecessary bloodshed via a violent demonstration that would provoke the British forces. He was the one who communicated to all the surrounding areas in famous names such as Concord and Lexington, what should be done to maintain the "Minuteman" forces, and what should be done in the event of a given action.
It was his voice that had everyone pulling in the same direction, ready for action on that famous day of April 19th, 1775 when the British attempted to disarm the militias resulting in the exchange of gunfire in Lexington that morning, and later, in Concord, when the Colonials stood face to face with the British Regulars across the North Bridge in Concord.
He obviously did not set these policies in place himself, but it was his voice the spurred them on, and his voice that organized the communication.
He and the traitor Dr. Benjamin Church were the only two actually in Boston on that day, but he snuck out of Boston and became involved in armed engagements against the retreating British, even taking a ball through his wig.
When Bunker Hill arrived, he had signed on to fight as a private, on the very front, in the Patriot Army, but was instead made a Major General. His rank would have put him over the officer in charge of troops on Bunker Hill in that area (the famous Colonel Prescott) but Dr. Warren refused, and said he would serve under the real military men, doing whatever they asked, and going wherever they need him to go, in any role required. (They wanted him to serve as a physician, but he would have none of it-he wanted to be on the front lines, fighting.
So, Dr. Warren volunteered to serve under Colonel William Prescott in the defense of the main redoubt which the colonists had constructed on top of Breed's Hill. This redoubt was the target of three British attacks, of which the first two were repulsed. The third attack succeeded, in part because the defenders had run out of ammunition. Warren, who was one of the last holding the line so the retreat could be accomplished, was struck in the head by a musket or pistol ball during the evacuation of the redoubt, and killed instantly.
A true patriot, and good to his words and writing up to that point, was not an empty vessel. He was a man of action, and died serving valiantly.
What struck me in reading this book, was the day-to-day level of detail described, from the still-existing and accessible documentation less than 100 years after the actual events. The author (Frothingham) described in detail the day to day happenings over the course of years, and showed the incredible tolerance the Colonials showed in their attempts to remain British Citizens, but at the same time, to fight against their rights as British Citizens which were being trampled.
It is remarkable to read in Warren's writings and speeches, just how relevant and spot on are his views on everything from personal property rights to legal (Constitutional issues) today. He was as full of fire and passion as any patriot in the history of this country, and this books shows that even though this happened centuries ago, Dr. Joseph Warren would be as fiery and unequivocally committed as any conservative and Patriot you could hope to meet today. v Everyone knows Adams, Revere, and Hancock, but if you ask the vast majority of people today "Who was Dr. Joseph Warren?" you are likely to get a blank stare and "Joseph who?"
Samuel Adams was the planner and plotter. John Adams was the lawyer. John Hancock was the financier. And Paul Revere was the Hands On man.
But Joseph Warren was the and the glue that bound them all together.
In the years leading up to 1775, he was The Indispensable Man.
You are to be commended for this.
That was a great write up of the book. But the real kicker is this - you didn't just read a book and inform yourself. You didn't create an "island of Warren" within yourself. This is going to be spread far and wide, as far and wide as we can do it anyways. You don't have to now be the lone man who knows a lot about our forgotten Founder Joseph Warren.
And being open source, it's capable of spreading itself without our assistance.
I only hope I did it justice...:)
Congratulations **BUMP**
Great job!
Having promised similar work, I get the difficulty of getting into the routine and work itself.
I’m still on it, PA!
I guess we are part of ProgressingAmerica’s stable...:)
... or teachers of his patience... :)
“Stable”
LOL.... You two.
It really means a lot personally that both of you find my idea worth-while enough to pursue and bring to life above/beyond what I am capable of doing on my own. I’m hoping to keep bringing in other people and make this a real “thing” that’s one of many tools we can rely on and that others can rely on.
Now that this audiobook is finished, they can’t get rid of it. It’s forever.
It couldn’t be more clear that we truly need these tools. We need more, really, but if this is what we can do then that’s what we can do. Especially when talking about a high-quality solo such as the one just completed.(Warren) I’m going to keep doing group/collaborative types as they do have value, but the solos are always the diamonds.
Sincerely, thank you.
bkmk Dr. Joseph Warren
Ping - its a really good write up.
Homeschool ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.