Massachusetts, among other odd provisions, celebrates April 19th each year as Patriot’s Day.
Many recognize this as the day that the Boston Marathon is run from Hopkinton down to downtown Boston – others recognize it as the day that the Red Sox play a morning game at storied Fenway Park… but the reality is far different.
April 19th, 1775 is the day that the British marched on Concord and Lexington, two small towns west of Boston, in an effort to seize the powder and ammunition stored there.
They failed, of course, because the minutemen stood their ground. And from there on, the War was on. The War that made us free.
A bit belated, but Happy Patriot’s Day!
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say,
‘What should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ Bid us and our
posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough,
and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let
loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from
the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom,
go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch
down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit
lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen!”
– Samuel Adams