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Ross Muscato
Starting Member - Less than 50 posts
32 Posts
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 Posted - 04/22/2009 : 01:55:27 AM
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Hello, EastonMass.com compatriots. I thought the EastonMass.com forum is a particularly suitable place to post some reflecting and thinking I did this week on the Tea Parties and all, and their connection to Easton and its history. Here is my commentary:
In the wake of the Tea Parties across America last week, I was thinking how cool it is to live in a town that was already incorporated for close to half a century when the hooligans jumped all ugly that December night in 1773 and rambled down to the docks in Boston and tossed boxes of tea into the harbor. This event, the Boston Tea Party, helped foment armed insurrection in 1775, and inspired dissent and protest in 2009.
Dissent and protest, fundamental to republics and free societies. It is valuable to teach the kids that Easton had a strong hand in jump starting rebellion – and standing up to the motherland England. Earlier this week, in the wee hours of the morning – a time when I do some of my best thinking – I lugged out Rev. W.L. Chaffin's History of Easton, Mass, an absolute gem of a town history, a copy of which should be in every home in our community. The book was published in 1886, and chronicles back to the 1600s to the settlers of the land which would become Easton in 1725. Actually, Rev. Chaffin even describes a bit of the geologic action that formed the land and topography of the area millions upon millions of years ago.
Rev. Chaffin documented the gathering and building problem between the colonies and England.
“In 1763 the colonies were fervently attached to England and the English Constitution,” writes Rev. Chaffin. “In 1764, however, contrary to the judgment of William Pitt and some of the liberal minds of England, it was decided to levy taxes on the colonies in order to defray the expenses of the long war [the Seven Years War, a European conflict that was waged from 1756 through 1763] which has just closed. The policy roused the opposition of this country, our people taking the just ground that taxation without representation was a dangerous form of oppression.”
That taxation without representation has never sat well with the people in these parts.
With the enactment of the Stamp Act in 1765, which mandated that many legal documents had to be written on stamped paper, with the stamp having to be purchased from England, resentment and anger continued to stew an bubble. As evidence, though, that emotions and tempers have become more balanced and restrained through the years, consider the misfortune that befell one of our town ancestors after he stated publicly that he did not have a problem with the Stamp Act. Chaffin refers to an excerpt from a story in the Boston Gazette, dated December 23, 1765:
We hear from Easton, in the county of Bristol, that a certain justice of the peace in said town in conversation said that he would not give the price of his black dog to prevent the Stamp Act's taking place. Accordingly he had the mortification to find his black dog shot the next morning.
And you think we play rough in town politics nowadays.
Easton responded quickly to the Stamp Act, holding a town meeting in which it resolved to up its self sufficiency, and produce within the community products that had been purchased from England. A piece of business was approved unanimously which included the following language: “the Town will take all Prudent & legal measures to Promote industry, Oeconeme [economy], and manufacturers, and to lessen the use of forrin [foreign] Superfluities by industriously cultivating and improving the Natural advantages of our own Country.” (Chaffin)
Over the next nine years, relations between the colonies and Her Majesty's government continued to worsen – and hostilities seemed certain. The colonies, and Easton, prepared. On November 15, 1774, town meeting voted, as Rev. Chaffin notes, “the sum of twenty-four pounds of sterling to 'purchase a stock of powder, bullets, and flints for the town .... The two military companies of the town were equipped and there was constant practice in military drill.”
It wasn't long before the Minute Men of Easton were getting after the enemy. Early in the morning on April 19, British soldiers, on their way to seize military supplies the colonists had stored in Concord, mixed it up with militiamen at Lexington Green and then near the North Bridge in Concord.
By noon on the 19th, a messenger on horseback raced into Easton and alerted the townspeople that the battle for independence was on. The news was quickly transmitted throughout the community – and by nightfall, two companies, numbering 47 and 50 men, were on their way to join the battle.
Fighting at Lexington and Concord was over when the Easton companies arrived. But the town and its militia were committed to freedom and liberty, and, if necessary, sacrificing all.
Soon, the revolution raged, and Easton and its men and women were full participants. Its men served, fought, and died, and were taken prisoner. (one example of service: at least 23 men from Easton endured the horrible conditions of Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78.)
To alleviate the burden of having to purchase from Britain, the women of the Daughters of Liberty in Easton were busy knitting and weaving, producing clothing and other items.
The town had a thriving and busy industry manufacturing the armaments to win independence.
In terms of shared sacrifice in times of war, consider this observation of Chaffin's: “nearly every able-bodied citizen of the town, and even many of the boys, served their country in the Revolutionary War. This is a matter for honest town pride.”
How true, the devotion of so many who lived here, on land that is now free and protected. And it can only be a good thing that our kids know about it.
Ross A. Muscato lives in Easton. He may be reached at rossmuscato@gmail.com.
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Easton -- Freedom and Liberty
