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Speaker 1: From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.

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Speaker 1: Each week right here, we come together, we talk about

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Speaker 1: all the topics important to you and the place where

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Speaker 1: you live. Thanks for tuning in. This week, I'm Nicole Davis.

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Speaker 1: As we celebrate the nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary.

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Speaker 1: I've been doing the occasional segment in a series called

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Speaker 1: Revolutionary Roots. We're taking a closer look here at the stories,

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Speaker 1: local ties, the people, and the events all connecting Massachusetts

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Speaker 1: and New England to this pivotal moment in our history.

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Speaker 1: For this week, the series takes us to Dorchester. Now

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Speaker 1: picture it all these years ago in seventeen seventy six,

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Speaker 1: in March, Boston was a city under siege. It took

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Speaker 1: a pretty drastic move from the Revolutionaries the Patriots to

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Speaker 1: break that siege, send the British packing off to Nova Scotia,

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Speaker 1: and then push ahead the quest for independence. All that

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Speaker 1: played out on March seventeenth. What these days we now

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Speaker 1: know is Evacuation Day. Here in Massachuset, it's Revolution two

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Speaker 1: fifty as a group of local experts, organizations, and nonprofits

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Speaker 1: who've been putting on all these great special events to

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Speaker 1: mark the anniversary coming up on March seventeenth, they're doing

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Speaker 1: one in Dorchester for Evacuation Day. Here to tell us

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Speaker 1: all about that and a bit more about what exactly

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Speaker 1: Evacuation Day is is Jonathan Lane. He is the executive

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Speaker 1: director of Revolution two fifty and Jonathan, it's great to

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Speaker 1: have you with us. So before we kind of dig

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Speaker 1: a little deeper into Evacuation Day, get some education, give

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Speaker 1: us a rundown about Revolution two fifty and all the

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Speaker 1: work you all are doing there.

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Speaker 2: Sure. So, Revolution two fifty actually began back in twenty

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Speaker 2: fifteen when they commemorated the very first two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fiftieth anniversary event in the lead up to American Independence,

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Speaker 2: which was the dedication of the Liberty Tree in Boston

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Speaker 2: and really the formation of the Sons of Liberty, who

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Speaker 2: really become the heart and soul of what will eventually

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Speaker 2: be the independence movement. But of course in seventeen sixty

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Speaker 2: five they're not really there. Revolution two fifty is a

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Speaker 2: consortium of organizations that have been working since twenty fifteen

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Speaker 2: on the two hundred and fiftieth. We are across the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth and we have a couple of partners just over

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Speaker 2: various borders, and it's really a recognition of the role

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Speaker 2: that New Englanders had with Massachusetts at the core in

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Speaker 2: the run up to American independence.

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Speaker 1: It's really interesting to me how excited people are getting,

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Speaker 1: of course because again big birthday, but really there's just

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Speaker 1: so many educational opportunities and that I'm seeing pop up

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Speaker 1: all over the Commonwealth and people seem to really be

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Speaker 1: getting into this.

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Speaker 2: It really is amazing. So if you look at the

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Speaker 2: arc of programs that have occurred over the last let's

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Speaker 2: say ten years, you know, we all we have hit

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Speaker 2: all the hotspots. And you know, the very last event

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Speaker 2: we did before COVID was the Boston massacre two fiftieth

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Speaker 2: and then there was that long COVID period where we

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Speaker 2: really struggled to keep them amentum going, but using technology

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Speaker 2: like the podcasting. For instance, we started The Revolution two

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Speaker 2: fifty podcasts, which is hosted by Suffolk University professor Bob Allison,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we are now three almost three hundred

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Speaker 2: episodes into that podcast, and we've talked with scholars and

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Speaker 2: public historians and screenwriters all who have a story to

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Speaker 2: tell about their role in promoting this history. So it's

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Speaker 2: really been a fantastic arc and I agree with you.

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Speaker 2: As we get closer to twenty twenty six, the momentum

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Speaker 2: has built. You know, we did the two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and you know,

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Speaker 2: it had been commemorated almost annually prior to that, and

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Speaker 2: you get two three thousand people, and so we were

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Speaker 2: expecting four to six thousand people and we got over

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Speaker 2: fifteen thousand people at the event in a night in December.

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Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of attention was brought to

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Speaker 2: it because of you know, engaging with communities that were

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Speaker 2: the burial places of participants in the Tea Party. We

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Speaker 2: invited participants from around the world to send us tea

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Speaker 2: and we got over four thousand pounds of tea in

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Speaker 2: one and two ounce increments from what fourteen countries and

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Speaker 2: every state and territory in America.

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Speaker 1: That is incredible. That's a lot of tea.

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Speaker 2: It is well, but so four thousand pounds when we say, wow,

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Speaker 2: that's a lot of tea. But remember two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty years ago they dumped ninety six thousand, six hundred

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Speaker 2: and sixty pounds of tea into the four point Channel.

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Speaker 1: That part of the Boston Harbor area must have smelled

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Speaker 1: amazing for at least a couple of hours. Afterwards. I'm

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Speaker 1: literally icy.

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Speaker 2: Tea well with salt water.

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Speaker 1: But I mean I wouldn't drink it. I'm just saying

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Speaker 1: so ever.

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Speaker 2: Since then, you know, so it's not just the tea party,

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Speaker 2: it's not just Bunker Hill, it's not lexingon and conquer.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we did all of those things, but it's

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Speaker 2: also this two fiftieth is an opportunity to widen our

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Speaker 2: vista and help people understand the role of the indigenous

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Speaker 2: communities in America during this time period. You know, the

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Speaker 2: very first Indigenous person to die in the American Revolution

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Speaker 2: was killed at Bunker Hill, and he was a young

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Speaker 2: Connecticut Mohegan man who came up to Massachusetts with his

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Speaker 2: brother and some of his neighbors to support the patriot cause.

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Speaker 2: And similarly, there's more than fifteen hundred patriots of color

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Speaker 2: who served throughout the long eight year war of the

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Speaker 2: American Revolution from Massachusetts alone. And you know, so you

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Speaker 2: get to have these discussions of understanding that it's not

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Speaker 2: just about the big events, it's not just about Sam

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Speaker 2: Adams and John and Paul Revere. It's about average people,

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Speaker 2: ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing, and.

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Speaker 1: It's about them living lives that we in current day

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Speaker 1: may never be able to truly understand. I mean, Boston

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Speaker 1: for a time was a war zone, a literal war zone.

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Speaker 1: It was under siege. You had women acting as spies.

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Speaker 1: You had, like you said, patriots of color joining up

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Speaker 1: and fighting at a time when that was just unheard of, unspoken.

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Speaker 1: So I'm really grateful that all these stories are coming

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Speaker 1: to life because they all make up the American experience.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right. And you know, let's not forget the

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Speaker 2: children out there. I mean, the youngest person at Bunker

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Speaker 2: Hill was ten years old. In the Arlington on April nineteen,

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Speaker 2: seventeen seventy five, a group of children managed to save

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Speaker 2: their house from destruction because they used the family's newly

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Speaker 2: brewed beer to put out a fire the British soldiers

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Speaker 2: had started. So there's all of these stories out there,

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Speaker 2: and it is very much a story of the people, right,

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Speaker 2: And that's what is particularly fascinating that as much as

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Speaker 2: we hold up certain individuals to be heroes, it really

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Speaker 2: is the stories of everyday lives and to the links

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Speaker 2: to which they would go to preserve their rights and liberties.

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Speaker 2: You know, John Adams said it best. He said, the

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Speaker 2: real revolution occurred before a drop of blood got spilled.

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Speaker 2: It was what occurred in the hearts and minds of

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Speaker 2: the people all across Massachusetts. And when you read the

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Speaker 2: town meeting records and you read the Committee of Correspondence records,

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Speaker 2: you really get a sense of how people across Massachusetts.

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Speaker 2: First of all, how deeply they understood their rights and

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Speaker 2: liberties under the English constitutional system, and two, how they

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Speaker 2: viewed their role in the British Empire. And three the

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Speaker 2: links to which they would go to preserve those rights

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Speaker 2: and liberties, not for themselves as much. They don't talk

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Speaker 2: about it in the sort of the first person. They

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Speaker 2: talk about securing these rights and liberties for their children

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Speaker 2: and their grandchildren. I mean, they were really very sort

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Speaker 2: of forward thinking people, which is Massachusetts to a te.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's exactly it. I mean today I feel

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Speaker 1: like that is just us in a nutshell. There's all

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Speaker 1: that talk about, oh the whole country hates New England

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Speaker 1: and New England versus everybody. But I really do feel

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Speaker 1: that those are New England qualities Massachusetts qualities and even today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's so true, and quite frankly, it's one

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Speaker 2: of the things that you know, Revolution two fifty and

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Speaker 2: now m A two fifty, which is the State's office

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Speaker 2: for the two fifty, if you know, it's one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons that we spend so much time pushing and

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Speaker 2: promoting the work that we do to remind people, not

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Speaker 2: just in New England but across the nation that when

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Speaker 2: you get to the Declaration of Independence, when you get

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Speaker 2: to July fourth, seventeen seventy six, you only get there

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Speaker 2: because of what the people of Massachusetts did.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Let's talk about Evacuation Day. March seventeenth is

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Speaker 1: often known as a whole other day. You know, Saint

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Speaker 1: Patrick's Day, got the parade and you know, people getting

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Speaker 1: drunk and all that stuff and whatever. That's great. It's

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Speaker 1: good to have a holiday for all those things. I

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Speaker 1: love March seventeenth because it's evacuation Day. And frequently I

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Speaker 1: have people saying, what's evacuation Day? And why is only

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Speaker 1: the City of Boston, like two other places off on

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Speaker 1: evacuation Day. Give us a little bit of the history,

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Speaker 1: if you could, about what exactly happened on March seventeenth,

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Speaker 1: all those years ago.

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Speaker 2: Sure, So March seventeenth, seventeen seventy six, the in the

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Speaker 2: months leading up to that, so everybody knows. April nineteenth,

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Speaker 2: the Siege of Boston begins, and Boston is ringed by

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Speaker 2: thirteen miles of fortifications and trenchments, and they're manned by,

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Speaker 2: given the time of year, anywhere between ten and sixteen

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Speaker 2: thousand soldiers, you know, provincial soldiers from New England and beyond.

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Speaker 2: The British Army is trapped in Boston. They can only

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Speaker 2: get supplied by ships at sea. But it's a stalemate

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Speaker 2: because the Massachusetts forces don't have cannons big enough to

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Speaker 2: drive the ships away, and the British Army don't have

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Speaker 2: enough men to come out and essentially break out and

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Speaker 2: subdue the provincial Army. So Washington comes to take command

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Speaker 2: in July of seventeen seventy five, and his first job

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Speaker 2: is to sort of figure out how to break the stalemate,

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Speaker 2: and they form the Continental Army. He meets Henry Knox,

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Speaker 2: a young twenty five year old bookseller from Boston, and

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Speaker 2: he's really impressed with Knox. Knox is a big imposing figure.

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Speaker 2: He's over six feet waist two twenty five, and you know,

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Speaker 2: he's obviously very intelligent and has a lot of book

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Speaker 2: learning that he's applied to some of the fortifications. And

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Speaker 2: Washington says, here's a man that I can send out

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Speaker 2: on an expedition. So he gives Knox essentially one thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars and says, go to Fort Taykonderga in New York,

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Speaker 2: which had just been captured, and bring me all the

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Speaker 2: heavy artillery you can. And so Knox and his brother

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Speaker 2: William go out to Fort Ticonderoga, and in the dead

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Speaker 2: of winter they pack up sixty tons of artillery. And

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Speaker 2: it's just the cannon tubes. There's no wheels, there's no gunpowder,

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Speaker 2: there's no shot. All of that will be supplied by

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Speaker 2: other means. But they essentially take eighty teams of horses

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Speaker 2: and put the cannon barrels on sleds and they drag

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Speaker 2: them from Fort Tekonderoga. They crossed the Hudson River twice.

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Speaker 2: They climb up through the Berkshire Mountains all the way

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Speaker 2: across the Housatonic and the Connecticut Rivers, all the way

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Speaker 2: to framing Ham, which they arrive in the middle of

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Speaker 2: January seventeen seventy six, the cannons are reassembled with all

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Speaker 2: their wooden and iron powers, and on the fourth of

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Speaker 2: March seventeen seventy six, General Washington is determined to build

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Speaker 2: a fortification on Dorchester Heights, which is the last high

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Speaker 2: ground that can oversee Boston. And in order to do

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Speaker 2: this they prefabricate a fort They use materials that are

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Speaker 2: called chandeliers, which are wooden frames like a timber frame,

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Speaker 2: like a like you would have built a house with

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Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty years ago. And they're filled with

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Speaker 2: tightly wrapped bundles of sticks called fascines, and they're about

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Speaker 2: anywhere from between three and four feet thick. And they

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Speaker 2: one night, twelve hundred men carry this entire fortification and

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Speaker 2: many of Knox's heavy guns up to the top of

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Speaker 2: Dorchester Heights and assemble it all. And the next day,

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Speaker 2: the fifth of March seventeen seventy six, George Washington rides

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Speaker 2: up to the fort and he says to the men

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Speaker 2: in the fortification, this is the sixth anniversary of the

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Speaker 2: Boston massacre, and I know you will not let the

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Speaker 2: British take this position, and you know, there were some

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Speaker 2: aboard of attempts by the British to both bombard and

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Speaker 2: potentially land troops, but they were frustrated by bad weather,

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Speaker 2: and on the seventeenth of March seventeen seventy six, General

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Speaker 2: Howe decided to evacuate more than essentially eleven thousand people,

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Speaker 2: So about seven thousand troops or so four thousand loyalist

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Speaker 2: families went with them, and they all decamped and went

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Speaker 2: to Halifax, Nova Scotia. And the importance of all of

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Speaker 2: this is that that is the moment that the people

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Speaker 2: of Massachusetts secured for themselves. They're independent because the British

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Speaker 2: Army never comes back. They have complete control over the

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Speaker 2: government and really the organization of Massachusetts. And so then

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Speaker 2: they saw it as their responsibility to go help out

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Speaker 2: the rest of the thirteen colonies.

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Speaker 1: Wow, what an amazing culture shift at the time, What

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Speaker 1: an amazing shift in the fight for independence. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that this spilled out into other colonies pretty quickly too.

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Speaker 1: People saw what happened in Boston. I feel like Evacuation

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Speaker 1: Day kind of lit a fire that had been smoldering

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Speaker 1: a bit, but really put the logs on the fire.

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Speaker 1: And fan the flames, to be sure.

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Speaker 2: And let's be honest. First of all, we could not

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Speaker 2: have done it without the aid and support of the

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Speaker 2: other colonies. Of course, so many states from Virginia north

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Speaker 2: actually sent soldiers to the Siege of Boston, So we

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Speaker 2: need to recognize that. We also need to recognize the

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Speaker 2: fact that you don't get to July fourth without evacuation day. No,

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Speaker 2: because it really showed the rest of the colonies that

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Speaker 2: not only was victory achieve but that it didn't result

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Speaker 2: in chaos and turmoil. The people of Massachusetts just returned

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Speaker 2: to their their natural state of governance. The town meetings

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Speaker 2: went on, the Provincial Congress sort of returns back to

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Speaker 2: the General Court, and they are in a state of war,

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Speaker 2: and the Constitution of Massachusetts hadn't been written yet, but

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Speaker 2: John Adams was working on that. So it really is

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Speaker 2: that moment that allowed independence to happen.

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Speaker 1: Wow, And we still celebrated all these years later, which

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Speaker 1: we should if you ask me, because again, this was

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Speaker 1: a major, major moment in Massachusetts history. And as we

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Speaker 1: look ahead to the two fifty celebration here, you've got

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Speaker 1: a whole huge event plan for this year. This is

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Speaker 1: going to be over at Dorchester Heights, there's the monument there.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they're going to have it open on evacuation I

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Speaker 2: think in my lifetime, but as a regular opportunity. But

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Speaker 2: people will be able to go into the monument and

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Speaker 2: climb to the cupola and see Boston at their feet.

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Speaker 1: That's going to be a gorgeous photo op for what

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Speaker 1: it's worth, even you know, history aside. I mean, we

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Speaker 1: rarely get to see that view. But I tell me

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Speaker 1: a little bit about what you've got planned for this

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Speaker 1: year for this epic celebration.

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Speaker 2: Sure, Look, it's really exciting. Obviously, the City of Boston,

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Speaker 2: Boston two fifty, they're involved, the National Parks, We've got

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Speaker 2: the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company involved. There's so many

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Speaker 2: great opportunities. We're going to start the day as is

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Speaker 2: traditionally done at Saint Augustine's, which is the oldest Catholic

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Speaker 2: chapel in Massachusetts, and they do a little service there,

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Speaker 2: particularly for some of the early organizers of Evacuation Day,

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Speaker 2: going back to the nineteenth century. Then we'll do a procession.

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Speaker 2: We have a procession organized. It's going to be about

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Speaker 2: somewhere between three and four hundred people long, which we'll

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Speaker 2: focus on both modern military elements and honor guards. Will

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Speaker 2: also have some obviously lots of colonial participation with re enactors.

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Speaker 2: We've got George Washington and his staff coming to bless

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Speaker 2: the occasion as they did two hundred and fifty years ago,

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Speaker 2: and of course the very last element of the entire

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Speaker 2: procession will be Henry Knox's teams dragging the cannons up

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Speaker 2: to the top of Dorchester Heights, which we work course

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Speaker 2: we're really excited about. And then working with the National

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Speaker 2: Park Service. Of course they've invested a great deal of

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Speaker 2: time and effort on getting the monument refurbished in time.

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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful restoration, meticulously done. So we're expecting participation

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Speaker 2: from a number of national National Park representatives in addition

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Speaker 2: to many of our local partners that we work with continuously.

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Speaker 2: And there's a whole commemorative program that is filled with

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Speaker 2: beautiful music and pageantry and opportunities for the public to

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Speaker 2: come and really touch history on this day, two hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty years after we watched the British sale out

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Speaker 2: of Boston Harbor.

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Speaker 1: Wow, it's a once in a lifetime thing and kind

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Speaker 1: of extending on that really quick. You all have a

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Speaker 1: time capsule going on which I am super fascinated about.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit what is in this time

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Speaker 1: capsule and what's going to happen during the ceremony.

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Speaker 2: I think they're still taking submissions for the time capsule,

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Speaker 2: so you'll see some you know a lot of organizations

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Speaker 2: that are particularly tied to South Boston. You know, the

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Speaker 2: South Boston Citizens Association really the keepers of this story

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Speaker 2: for generations now. They have been the ones hosting this

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Speaker 2: event and encouraging school children to get involved. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we can't express enough gratitude towards the work that they

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Speaker 2: have done and the work they continue to do up

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Speaker 2: to this day. So they're the ones who are really

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Speaker 2: worked on getting this time capsule built and established, and

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Speaker 2: they're taking submissions there. You know, I'm sure they'll be

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Speaker 2: challenge coins and modern coins that will be going into

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Speaker 2: all this as well as you know, they're gonna they

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Speaker 2: always do student contests for essays and posters, and those

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Speaker 2: will all be going into the time capsules. Well, I

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Speaker 2: think I think they're going to go in in a

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Speaker 2: digital format, so their chances of preservation are slightly greater.

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Speaker 2: Obviously that's the thing you think about most, but it's

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Speaker 2: really going to be representative of the community spirit of

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Speaker 2: South Boston and it's tied to this particular moment in history,

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Speaker 2: and so we're just excited to be part of it.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited for you. And if people want to find out,

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Speaker 1: you know, the particulars about the event, when, where, how

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Speaker 1: they can get tickets. If they need to get tickets,

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Speaker 1: where can they find out more information?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no tickets for the day itself. There are

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Speaker 2: other events happening throughout the weekend which we encourage people

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Speaker 2: to take part in, so they can find the South

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Speaker 2: Boxing Citizens Association on Facebook. Revolution two fifty dot org

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Speaker 2: will have some data up there for the various events

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Speaker 2: that are going forward as well, and anybody can always

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Speaker 2: reach out to the City of Boston Boston two fifty

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Speaker 2: and they'll have a complete schedule as well.

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Speaker 1: Beautiful Jonathan, this is so cool. I'm really excited for

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Speaker 1: this event. Thanks for taking the time and for the

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Speaker 1: history listen too.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much for the opportunity, and we hope

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Speaker 2: to see you and everyone else.

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Speaker 1: There have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us

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Speaker 1: again next week. For another edition of the show. I'm

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Speaker 1: Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio