Living History at Minute Man National Historical Park

During the summer of 1774, crisis engulfed the Massachusetts countryside over Parliament’s heavy-handed response to the destruction of tea by a Boston mob the previous winter. When British Warships closed Boston Harbor and 5,000 Regular Soldiers arrived to enforce a series of laws aimed at punishing the people of Massachusetts, outrage spread rapidly.

Join a park ranger at Hartwell Tavern in the town of Lincoln, Massachusetts to explore how the events of 1774 represented a dramatic escalation in the political crisis that put the people of Massachusetts on the path toward rebellion. Learn the stories of ordinary people forced to choose sides and discuss the dangers they encountered as neighbors turned on neighbors, declaring dissenters as “Enemies to their Country.”