A Past to Build Upon

The year is 1770 and tensions are running hot. The city is a loaded gun ready to be fired at any given moment. The citizens are having trouble accepting the rule of the mother country. Between the horrible occupation by the lobster-backs and the taxation without representation, it is about time the people of Boston got their fight back. Walking down the streets, one can smell the ocean and see the cityscape. That is some thing that has not changed. Now cars line the streets where once there were horses. Skyscrapers tower over the same commons that once held town meetings. As I walk these streets, a sense of history washes over me. I begin to understand the history upon which the great city of Boston is built. In Margaret Atwood’s “True North”, She states that one’s perspective is relative to their knowledge of the geography. I agree with Atwood, for my perspective of Boston has changed due to my new found understanding of the past and where the future is headed.

I visit Boston frequently. It is a city of the old and a city of the yet to be. The city is about a half an hour away from my town, if I take the train. Often I have spent the weekend in Southie, enjoying the Irish culture and shopping at Faneuil Hall. Maybe I even venture into the North end to taste the best pasta and canolis. Riding on the T, I have experienced Boston end to end. Then how, may I ask, did I miss such a large part of the city? This part is hidden, intertwined with the new. An observer can find a seal here, a monument there, an old ship that bobs with the tides. A trail of bricks links these historical places together. The Freedom Trail is often ignored when someone thinks of Boston. I know that I ignored it at first. Boston is such a tight-knit city. Everything is pushed up against everything else. There the past is a part of where the city is moving.

Boston was one of the first cities in the thirteen colonies. It was not just a port city and the business center of the north but also the home to many essential actions vital to the fight for freedom. The city’s history is not lacking. It is full of controversies, battles, and hot heads. The Freedom Trail goes along the streets and stops at the Boston Common, Paul Revere’s house, Old North Church, the site of the Boston Massacre, Bunker Hill, and the Boston Tea Party, just to name a few. It is amazing how stores and tall business buildings surround the historical sites. The past is truly a part of the new. How the bustling streets of today were once the sites of important historical events that lead up to the independence of America is a large part of what makes Boston so unique.

One important historical event that occurred in Boston is the Boston Massacre. I stood on the star, pressed in stone and woven seamlessly into the cobble stone street. A passer by may step right over it without a second thought. However, over 200 years earlier, people were standing on that spot for a very different reason. In the spring of 1770, there was tension in the air. Everyone was angered by the presence of the British redcoats. The crown was not listening and the colonists were at the end of their rope. Soon enough, a crowd had gathered. Snowballs, rocks, anything accessible were thrown at the despised soldiers. Having no choice, the redcoats shot into the crowd. Only one man died that day, but the incident was printed in the paper as the Boston Massacre, and I stood where it happened. Standing on the very spot where the colonists first stood up for themselves, one really understands the passion, which Boston was built upon. That star marks the spot, where a fight for freedom all began with a simple riot in downtown Boston. In the past, Boston was a city of passion, full of fight, and it continues in that tradition.

One of the most important places in a Colonists life was the church. First and foremost, it was their place of worship and meeting. Old North Church is also important for another reason not related to worship or religon. I traveled down the Freedom Trail to a large white building. I stood there looking up, all the way to its large steeple. This building was crucial to the colonists especially on a very famous night. The British were in tolerable and their latest mission was to confiscate weapons and empty magazines in order to disarm the colonists. The news got out that the British were on the move up north to Concord. There was a magazine up there and the colonists were through with appeasing the intruders. The plan was to set up a militia at Lexington to stop the troops from ever reaching Concord. There were not going to use it if they did not have to. The element of surprise was key and the British had two options. They could travel on foot using back roads to arrive or they could travel by sea using boats. The colonists decided that they needed to know which of the two ways the British were gong to use. Old North Church had a steeple that stood high above the city. From that steeple you could see all of Boston and her harbor. Robert Newman was the man for the job. He signaled using lanterns, one if by land, two if by sea. This church aided in the beginning of the fighting portion of the Revolutionary War. Standing there I listened to the organ music as it drifted out of the opened window. Now in that very church is an Episcopalian church. Still a place of meeting for the people of Boston, Old North stands tall. The building was an integral part of Boston’s history and will continue to be a place of worship in the future.

Boston is a city located on the water. With water running through the city as well as all around it, it has to be a part of the city’s history. My last stop was down along the harbor. A simple boat sat in the water tied to the wharf. The water made a soothing sound as it hit the wooden keel of the boat. I looked out to the horizon. The sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. Never before was anything like this achieved. Using unity, stealth, and intelligence the colonists had come up with a plan, a master plan. Tea had been taxed and the people of Boston were outraged. The crown had no right to tax the colonist whenever they felt like it. England had sent many messages to the Colonists telling them that the tea had to land. However, the Colonists had different ideas. That was the end of the line. The colonists decided that if the crown wanted the tea off the boats and they did not want the tea in the city, both sides could have their way. The colonists boarded the three ships anchored in the harbor dressed as “Indians.” They dragged the tea up out of the holds and threw it into the water. This action was later named the Boston Tea Party. The tea party was a message sent quite clearly and literally to the crown of England. It gave Boston and its people the reputation of being hotheaded liberals. The water was a clear blue with a green tint. I stood there imagining the crates and the massive amounts of tea as they turned the water brown. Today Boston Harbor is at the center of the city’s economy, just like in the days of the Revolution.

As I left Boston this time, I noticed an old steeple peering out between buildings, a boat made of wood docked by the bank. I understood then what this city had been built upon. It had courage, strength, intelligence, anger, and wit. It was built to last and grow and never be controlled. The cobblestone still today still lines the old streets in certain sections. The plaques tell the stories of a city ready to explode. Even the hustle and bustle of business today links back to that old New England city placed on the Ocean to be a port for the Northern colonies. Its foundation holds strong today and will continue to hold for many years to come, for when it was built, it was built right.


Photo Credits:

Paul Revere and the city

Boston Massacre

Boston Tea Party Boat

Boston