Digging and more digging had turned the cramped backyard of a centuries-old North End home into a hole-pocked jumble of back-filled earth that most tourists passed without a glance on their way to Old North Church.
But this blemish behind the 18th-century Clough House proved to be a blessing for archeologists, who say their dirty work this spring unearthed a rarely found time capsule from the neighborhood’s early days.
The following day—May 20, 1780—the sun came out as usual and darkness faded when it was supposed to. Things were back to normal, but no one knew for sure what had caused the darkness. Some colonists correctly identified the source of the darkness: something burning.
One journalist pointed out that he and his neighbors detected a “strong, sooty smell” and suspected the source to be leaves or a chimney burning.6 Joseph Dow claimed that the air for several days before had been filled with smoke “arising it was supposed, from extensive fires, somewhere raging in the woods.”7
The "Flames of Sedition" had already spread throughout the countryside where 95% of Massachusetts residents lived after a series of episodes, including the Tea Party and Stamp Act had led to tension and rage. The port of Boston was still controlled by the Crown's military forces and many of the educated elite had assembled in Philadelphia to decide whether they should wrest control away from the Crown. But at meeting houses and taverns across the Bay Colony, the farmers and shopkeepers were preparing and reacting in a determined rage to the loss of representation and oversight they once had to assure fairness in the Courts.
Most farmers and craftsmen were concerned with local issues - the struggle of daily life trying to grow crops on rocky soils or tend to church or local Town Meeting duties. Yet the contrasts of wealth between the educated elite and yeoman farmers was growing significantly while the rise of the "strolling poor" and landless was starting to increase as generations split up original land holdings again and again. Debts for farmers were growing steadily and historians have found that up to 22% of the farmers were facing litigation for unpaid debt. Courts had tremendous power to seize a farmer's property, so this was a growing concern in the years leading up to the Revolution.
Massachusetts' Society wins National Website Award PHOENIX, ARIZONA – July 12th, 2012 – The Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution earned the Outstanding Website Web Award at the 122nd National Congress for the best example of a…
The traffic was never sanctioned in this Province, and under the Colonial and Provincial Charters the slave trade was deprecated as a disgrace to humanity. The holding of slaves was not general, being confined to the wealthier classes.
The Massachusetts Ratification Convention by Gordon Lloyd The Massachusetts Ratifying Convention met in Boston from January 9, 1788 to February 5, 1788 to discuss "the adoption of the federal Constitution." 370 delegates had been elected on October 25, 1787, and…
1940 Census to be Released April 2nd, 2012 Important collection of family history streams onto websites. The 1940 census will be released online on April 2, 2012! Beginning tomorrow, you will be able to access the digitized census records at…
A New Window on Massachusetts' Vital Records By Emily Sweeney Boston Globe (March 20, 2012) Files-hunting couple sells trove to website DeLene and Jay Holbrook spent 30 years copying records in the state. (Todd Godfrey / Ancestry.com) Locked away in…
Boston Globe Sunday, 30 May 2011 New England Travel, p. M5-7 CONCORD - On a beautiful spring afternoon bursting with life, it might seem strange to stroll through a cemetery, but we were hardly alone when we stopped first at…
