The places where Bostonians lived, gathered, worked, and clashed became crucial sites of Revolutionary ferment.
The American Revolution wasn’t just fought on the battlefield. It played out in civic landmarks and the intimate spaces of daily life. Zooming in to the smallest scale allows us to think about how an abstract clash of values and ideals materialized in people’s individual worlds.
Public gathering places, like the Liberty Tree, offered Bostonians a place to protest, while the Boston Common offered soldiers a place to prepare and civilians to celebrate. Forts, including Castle William, sheltered members of the British military and eventually became key locations in the Continental Army’s efforts to expel the British during the war. Private homes were sites of resistance as women spearheaded boycotts and championed a movement to produce homespun goods. Merchant offices became a nexus of commerce, politics, labor, and slavery. In the spaces of everyday life, people of different races, ages, genders, classes, and backgrounds experienced the Revolution in different ways.