American Revolution

Objects can sometimes carry meanings beyond their original purpose. For Ezekiel Davis of Acton, a peculiar hole in his old hat told a very big story!

Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the globe come to Concord, Lexington, and the surrounding towns to witness the time-honored traditions, tactical demonstrations, and festive commemorations that pay tribute to the first battle of the American Revolution.

On April 19, 1775, an estimated twenty to forty colonists of African or Native American descent fought in the first battle of the American Revolution. On that historic day, those men, often termed “Patriots of Color,” joined approximately 4,000 other men fighting British Regular soldiers along the “Battle Road” from Concord to Boston. 

What happened on April 19, 1775? Explore this timeline for the full story.

One May morning in 1775, two men set out from Cambridge, bound for Lexington and Concord. The older one, Ralph Earl, was just shy of his twenty-fourth birthday, but was already an artist of some note. He lived in New Haven, Connecticut, but he had come to Boston to paint portraits. 

The Acton Minutemen were formed at the end of 1774 at a town meeting. Tensions with England had grown to a boil, and towns everywhere were responding by training their men to fight. The town of Acton, which had previously been part of Concord, chose their best men from their existing militia units to form the new Minute Company, and those men voted 30-year-old Isaac Davis as their Captain.

Lafayette was a French aristocrat who volunteered with the Continental Army, defying the will of his family to pursue what his heart commended him to do. His commitment to the American cause continues to be a powerful reminder of the universal appeal of the American Revolution.

In the autumn of 1774, colonists in Concord were preparing for the cold winter months and a potential military conflict with the British Army. This particular winter was quite difficult due to a domino cause and effect of events.

From the first shots fired, that fateful morning in April 1775, to the vicious fighting of “Parker’s Revenge” that afternoon, the events that took place in Lexington, Massachusetts are forever etched in America’s history. 

What was the Provincial Congress? In 1630, when colonists from England settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a charter allowed the settlers to run the colony as they saw fit. Therefore, there was a bottom-up government in addition to a top-down government.