"American independence, still the latest heroic achievement of humanity, and momentous enough to furnish the date for the beginning of modern history, presents itself to the ordinary imagination as the swift and common aspiration of a united people. … Thus the free spirit of the men of Massachusetts, long disciplined in the strife which seemed discouragingly unequal, — beckoned the heroic road to armed revolt. … In no other community in the colony of Massachusetts was the love of independence more central than in the North Precinct of the old town of Braintree, later set off and named Quincy. Nowhere else was the right of self-government more tenaciously held, and no other spot is more sacredly devoted to freedom by the sacrifices and cherished visions of its inhabitants."
Herein the author discusses the lives and works of John Adams, Abigail Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, William Hutchinson, Anne Hutchinson, Rev. John Wheelwright and other noteworthy citizens who "brought renown to old Braintree and Quincy… Here manifestly was a story of patriotic vision and achievement which had not been adequately told, at least in its continuity through so many successive generations of the leading families." From the 1600s, when Henry Adams first settled in the Massachusetts Colony, to the late 19th century, this book is a record of those early settlers and patriots who helped form our young nation. A wealth of vintage photographs and illustrations, three appendices (Additions and Corrections, The Hancock Burying-Ground, and Names on Grave-Stones), and an index to full names, places and subjects add to the value of this work.
Daniel Munro Wilson
(1904), 2023, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 470 pp.
ISBN: 9780788415142
101-W1514
