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They call it the Freedom Trail. A line that snakes through Boston, a walking tour that takes in all the must-see locations where modern America began. Sure, at just two and a half miles it sounds short, but with so many “firsts” to see, you’ll need more than a day to do it justice.
One of those “firsts” is where the Freedom Trail begins.
Boston Common is America’s very first public park. It was first set aside in 1640 for military training and grazing cattle before it became what it is today, a place to while away time and get acquainted with Boston’s rich history. This place is, after all, where you’ll find the story of America on every corner, where revolutionary zeal led to the fight for independence from the British.
One of the Freedom Trail’s most important stop-offs is the Old South Meeting House, where many of the assemblies of those revolutionaries took place, including one before the Boston Tea Party — a 1773 taxation protest that saw chests of tea dumped in Boston’s harbor, triggering a series of events that would turbocharge American independence.
Today you can even head down to the water for a full-scale reenactment, with actors channeling their inner revolutionary and delivering word-for-word speeches. It’s stirring stuff and reveals why it was no surprise that it all kicked off here in Boston.
After all, this was one of the first English settlements in the American colonies, founded in 1630. And 140 years later, when parliament back home tried to impose a tea tax and a trading monopoly, let’s just say things didn’t go as the British had planned.
“We look at the Boston Tea Party as the single most important event that led up to the American Revolution,” says Evan O’Brien, creative director of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. He isn’t wrong. The British viewed the Boston Tea Party as an act of treason and retaliated with punitive measures that would ultimately lead to conflict.
“We were the catalyst which then propelled America into actual war.”
“There were about a thousand people that night watching the destruction of the tea along the shores,” says O’Brien. As for “my personal family history. I’m torn. I have a lot of English ancestry, a lot of American ancestry. So perhaps I’d be on the shore watching and huzzah-ing along!”
There is, of course, a need to stop and eat too. An apt place is the Union Oyster House, which is claimed as the oldest continually operating restaurant in the United States.
Here you can eat what are claimed as the best oysters in the world, straight from Duxbury Bay, a place with a deep, long history, about 35 miles south of Boston.
Duxbury is a location that’s also pioneering the way towards a more sustainable future.
Shellfish farmer Skip Bennett grew up on these waters and has become the go-to guy for all things oyster. The delicious shellfish he trades in are a cornerstone of the Boston and New England culinary scene and go back way before the colonists decided they wanted a piece of the Massachusetts pie in the 17th century. Native Americans harvested the oysters here for centuries, the Wampanoag people continuing to assert their right to do so today.
For Bennett, his farming operation is all part of something bigger. He has previously dubbed Duxbury Bay as the Napa Valley of oysters and his harvest sells to the very best restaurants in the city. But, as he points out, his oysters act as a vital filter for water which has been polluted by nitrogen. Their presence helps to prevent algal blooms and create cleaner, clearer water. And that’s before the economic benefits of having his own hatchery and nursery, as well as staff whose dollars remain in the local area, creating a stronger economy in the process.
This whole place is personal for Bennett, too. From his oyster farm, you can see where the first pilgrims arrived in “New England” in 1620.
“This is Clark’s Island. It’s part of Plymouth. It’s in the middle of Duxbury, in Plymouth Bay. And it’s actually where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath. So they came ashore and spent a few days in late December, 1620. My family settled here and they never left, they’ve been here ever since the Mayflower.”
Hang on a moment, is Bennett saying he’s a direct descendant of those famous Mayflower pilgrims?
“Pretty much everybody on the Mayflower!”
In Boston there’s more of those “firsts.” There’s the aforementioned Boston Common and, of course, Harvard, founded in 1636 and the very first university in North America.
And back on the Freedom Trail, the phrase: oldest continuously operating is a recurring theme. The plaques that mark them are dotted everywhere, even in places like Ebenezer Hancock House, apparently the site of the United States’ oldest continually operating shoe store, which opened in 1798 and went out of business in 1968.
Someone strong connections to the Freedom Trail is Paul Revere. His house is one of the key stop-offs and for good reason. It was his midnight ride on April 18, 1775, that warned that the British were coming and helped the Patriots win the battles of Concord and Lexington.
Revere’s ride was famously immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” But while that classic work broadly tells the correct story of Revere’s efforts, Longfellow’s poetic licence means that a few lines are what might politely be termed fictionalized.
Nina Zannieri is the executive director at the Paul Revere House and is on hand for fact-checking a few lines.
“He said to his friend if the British march by land or sea…”
“The sea is confusing to people. We’re talking about going across the harbor… to Charlestown,” she clarifies.
“And I, on the opposite shore, will be ready to ride!”
“Oh oh oh oh stop,” says Zannieri. “That’s the part that we, that is, ugh. It’s terrible! It’s the worst part. Revere doesn’t have to be on the opposite shore waiting for the signals. He devised the signals!”
This feels like it needs an explanation of what really happened? Curious that the Old North Church isn’t mentioned https://www.paulreverehouse.org/the-real-story/
At least, though, Zannieri doesn’t mind the final lines.
“In the hour of darkness and peril and need/The people will waken and listen to hear/ The hurrying hoofbeats of that steed/And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
The Freedom Trail may only cover a few short miles. But the stories it helps to tell and the history it brings to life make it something far more than just a walk through a modern, buzzing city.
In fact, for such a small area, there is just so much magic to enjoy and to get lost in, whether it’s Boston Common, Union Oyster House, some of America’s very best museums or further afield in places like Duxbury Bay. Remembering every line of “Paul Revere’s Ride” is, however, optional.
CNN’s Richard Quest contributed to this story.
