The Minutemen and Their World Review
The National Council of the Social Studies standard 5, “Individuals, Groups, and Institutions” states that institutions like towns are “âÂ?¦embodiments to further the core social values of those who comprise them,” which can be said of the town politics in Concord. The core institution of Concord was the town hall and the political autonomy the town hall offered the people of the town. Gross states of the town meetings, ” The ordinary citizen in this vision of the politics had an equally virtuous code of conduct. When he joined in a town meeting, he would set the needs of the group before his own and strive to think as his neighbors thought.” At this point in Concord’s history people conducted themselves for their towns and neighbors.
Town meetings were the heart and soul of Concord and allowed people autonomy and self governance. The people were not blind patriots of the thrown; rather, they were well organized, critical thinking, democratic citizens. The institution of the town meeting and local government was so much a part of the people’s core values that when England broke the charter the citizen started to resist British rule; not because of anti-British sentiment in other colonies. Embodiments of values were elected to public office, “The people of Concord sought such leaders among the well-born and rich.” Leaders were well-educated, moral, respectable and stable.
The values and core beliefs of Concord changed in 1773 which can be directly seen in the actions of the local government. In 1773, the British issued the Stamp Act which many in Concord saw as a way for the British to enslave and subjugate them. The Concordians vowed to reject the British through their local government.
Core values and beliefs in the form of institutions can be studied in Concord through the divisions in the church. Standard 5 states that students of history should be able to recognize institutions in the context of the values of the people who make up the society, “They [students] should be assisted in recognizing the tensions that occur when the goals, values, and principles of two or more institutions or groups conflictâÂ?¦” This tension occurred between the New Lights and Old Lights. This differing political identity was a result of innovation and many Old Lights were holding onto their power and believed the New Lights were too divergent from the path of proper religious conduct. Another conflict between the groups of people in Concord that shows how values are often reflected in institutions was the fight for non-centralized churches. People in the outlining country often had to suffering hardships to get to their church and felt that a church closing to the country would best serve them. The upper classes of Concord rejected and renounced this proposal because they feared a loss of power in the central part of town. People feared the economic fracturing that would have taken place due to outlining churches. The conflict over churches is an example of people’s values changing institutions. The institution in question is the church, often the epitome of values and conduct for any society.
Concordians showed how one group of people fought against another group because of values. The church and town meetings were not the only institutions that unified the Concordians. As the conflict grew between the British and colonists the citizen of Concord were angered to a point of fury over British demands as most of the American colonies were preparing for a fight. The goals of the British were to take from their colonies what they believed to be rightfully theirs. The Concordians; however, were suffering from a strict class structure in Concord, had access to limited land, low class mobility, and limited wealth. Concord went from localized institutions as being the incarnations of values to the national movements against the British in the form of the new U.S. resistance to being their institution of reflecting values.
As the Revolution progressed Concord became special in its determination and intensity of anti-British fever. The Concordians were quick to raise a militia, despite the fact that it took time for a standing militia to form. As a town that initially refused to join the anti-British but changed their minds when they adamantly believed that their way of life was being threatened. This anti-British fever cumulated when the first shots were fired and battle started to take place in Lexington and Concord. The Concordians that were fighting were all classes of the people, not just the higher ranks of society. The Revolution was a unifying force causing the people of Concord to establish new institutions like a center for information that was outside of Boston and initially outside the reach of the British. The fact that all citizens fought the British in Concord shows how the people joined together to fight for anything that they had left in their world.
As the Revolution broke out, the people of Concord were not patriotic to the American cause. Concordians only joined the Revolution when their liberties were being threatened. Had the British not tried to hinder the Concordians institutions, which were the embodiment of the values and beliefs of the town, autonomy, self-governance, independence, democratic discussion the people of Concord may never joined the anti-British colonies. The mistake the British made with Concord is threatening their way of life. Institutions like the church and town meetings were representing the people of Concord before the Revolutions broke out. Those institutions were developed out of the people’ values and beliefs and the British’s institutions did not reflect their colonies values of beliefs. When the British challenged these institutions, Concord became one of the centers of the Revolution.
When Concord started to move toward the anti-British ideology the town took steps to ensure that all town members had the chance to choose their place in the new political movements. Before the Revolution the Concordians still wanted to be part of England and its territories. The British are to blame for Concord becoming a center of Revolution, not Boston or Philadelphia. The Revolution in Concord was a result of the English not understanding the Concord way of life; rather, than the American centers of Revolution understanding the Concordians.
Robert A. Grossman argues that after the Revolution the people of Concord still lived in a class society with structure. The people did not become equals among each other and live equally. Grossman argues that what the Revolution did for Concordians, a microscopic look at the Revolution in America, was allow people to belief in a democratic and self determining way of life. The Revolution did not change the class society in America. When the Constitution was finally written the men that were at the Philadelphia were mostly rich white men. It is true that that after the Revolution people believed in self determination. The self determination that was first seen in Concord when people started moving west of the town in search for land became much more prevalent during the post-Revolution years. The spirit of self determination and individualism with a strong tie to the national institution of government became the way of life for Americans.
Robert A. Grossman’s book is a case study in how a loyal colony went from loyalty to the thrown of England to becoming loyal to themselves. The town government reflected the people’s values and beliefs of Concord, not the British Parliament hundreds of mile away. The mistake the British made in the colonies was not respecting the values and beliefs of the citizens in America. Patriotism became rampant due to a threat to a way of life, not because the colonies wanted to fight.
Understanding the values and beliefs of the Americans during the Revolutionary years is key in understanding how these colonies changed and adapted.
