My Felicity doll's adventure didn't end with chocolate. Read on to see what else she learned and how much I have to tell her.
"Here I am in Boston's North End. This is the home of a great number of those strange Puritan people. In the future, Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants will move in and the area will become known as the Italian section of Boston.
Here you can see a historic home from before my time and how it has changed and grown from then to your time. Clough House (rhymes with "fluff") was built between 1712-1715. Master Mason, Ebenezer Clough, lived here. He helped build the church here in the North End of town. (That's the true church, the Church of England, not one of those Puritan meetinghouses). Mr. Clough built other, similar houses in the neighborhood. One house belonged to somebody you and I both know about - Benjamin Franklin! His sister Jane lived there.
Mr. Clough's family will live here for only two generations. In 1806 a third floor was added and the house became a tenement for immigrant families.
180 families will live here over the next 150 years!
In the way far off future, in 1959, the house will become part of the church holdings. In your day it will be a museum space to interpret the history of the North End.
Who is this person and why does he have such a giant statue?
Paul Revere? Isn't he a silversmith and engraver? What on earth has he done to deserve this statue? My human, Susanna, starts to recite a poem she learned from her friends Addy, Samantha and Molly.
I am trying to find out more about the man on the horse. Why is he so important? First, I need to learn about what has been happening in Boston lately.
A lot has happened since I arrived in Boston. A year ago, in the spring of 1774, the British Crown decided to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party.
The British Parliament all the way in London passed what the Bostonians are calling The Intolerable Acts. The port of Boston has been closed and Bostonians are required to pay for the lost tea. Back home in Virginia, I remember when the House of Burgesses passed a resolution calling for a day of fasting and prayer in sympathy with Boston. Then Lord Dunmore dissolved the Burgesses, our freely elected representatives. My father was not happy. The same thing is happening in Boston.
The port is closed, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress has been dissolved and British General Thomas Gage appointed military governor! The people's right to assemble is gone and a strict curfew is in place! People can not come and go as they please. The British army is on the way - 4000 troops are coming to occupy Boston! Officials charged with a crime growing out of their enforcement of the law or suppression of riots will be sent to another British colony or even Britain to be tried. The new royal governor also has the powers to remove judges, marshals and justices of the peace. When the British soldiers arrive, the governor will house them in unoccupied barns and houses.
Governor Gage is afraid people will arm themselves against the royal government. Governor Gage has decided to reclaim all government arms and munitions stockpiled around the colony! In September '74 he went to seize the gunpowder in Charlestown across the river.
Do you think the citizens of Massachusetts Bay Colony were happy with that? No way! Remember when Lord Dunmore tried to steal our gunpowder and real Felicity warned everyone? I think I know what is going to happen now!
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress continues to meet illegally in Concord, twenty miles west of Boston. They made plans to defend the colony against the British: build an alarm network, form companies of minutemen, and aiding towns in storing ammunition. The leaders of the Congress were some men you may have heard of, says Susanna. Do you know Sam Adams (he has nothing to do with beer, giggles Susanna) and John Hancock? They are wanted by the British! They fled 8 miles away to Lexington. General Gage plans to send 700 troops to seize munitions in Concord.
"Here I am in Boston's North End. This is the home of a great number of those strange Puritan people. In the future, Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants will move in and the area will become known as the Italian section of Boston.
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| Mini Felicity at Clough House in Boston's North End |
Here you can see a historic home from before my time and how it has changed and grown from then to your time. Clough House (rhymes with "fluff") was built between 1712-1715. Master Mason, Ebenezer Clough, lived here. He helped build the church here in the North End of town. (That's the true church, the Church of England, not one of those Puritan meetinghouses). Mr. Clough built other, similar houses in the neighborhood. One house belonged to somebody you and I both know about - Benjamin Franklin! His sister Jane lived there.
Mr. Clough's family will live here for only two generations. In 1806 a third floor was added and the house became a tenement for immigrant families.
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| Mini Felicity looks at architecture rendering of Clough House in 1806 |
180 families will live here over the next 150 years!
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| Clough House |
Who is this person and why does he have such a giant statue?
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| Mini Felicity with Cyrus Dallin's Paul Revere statue |
Paul Revere? Isn't he a silversmith and engraver? What on earth has he done to deserve this statue? My human, Susanna, starts to recite a poem she learned from her friends Addy, Samantha and Molly.
LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Oh, so he's some kind of hero? Let me go find out what happens next year that's SO important several generations of school children know this man's name.
Here is the Old North Church
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| Mini Felicity behind the Old North Church |
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| Mini Felicity in front of the Old North Church |
What is going on in Boston? What is this Old North Church? Let's go in and look around, shall we.
Here is a map of Boston. It's on a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, much like Williamsburg.
It looks similar to the Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. Susanna's Puritan meetinghouses are much more plain in comparison.
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| Mini Felicity inside Old North Church |
Each family has their own pew. They may decorate it as they wish.
I am trying to find out more about the man on the horse. Why is he so important? First, I need to learn about what has been happening in Boston lately.
A lot has happened since I arrived in Boston. A year ago, in the spring of 1774, the British Crown decided to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party.
The British Parliament all the way in London passed what the Bostonians are calling The Intolerable Acts. The port of Boston has been closed and Bostonians are required to pay for the lost tea. Back home in Virginia, I remember when the House of Burgesses passed a resolution calling for a day of fasting and prayer in sympathy with Boston. Then Lord Dunmore dissolved the Burgesses, our freely elected representatives. My father was not happy. The same thing is happening in Boston.
The port is closed, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress has been dissolved and British General Thomas Gage appointed military governor! The people's right to assemble is gone and a strict curfew is in place! People can not come and go as they please. The British army is on the way - 4000 troops are coming to occupy Boston! Officials charged with a crime growing out of their enforcement of the law or suppression of riots will be sent to another British colony or even Britain to be tried. The new royal governor also has the powers to remove judges, marshals and justices of the peace. When the British soldiers arrive, the governor will house them in unoccupied barns and houses.
 |
| Mini Felicity boos in front of the pew of General Thomas Gage |
Governor Gage is afraid people will arm themselves against the royal government. Governor Gage has decided to reclaim all government arms and munitions stockpiled around the colony! In September '74 he went to seize the gunpowder in Charlestown across the river.
Do you think the citizens of Massachusetts Bay Colony were happy with that? No way! Remember when Lord Dunmore tried to steal our gunpowder and real Felicity warned everyone? I think I know what is going to happen now!
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress continues to meet illegally in Concord, twenty miles west of Boston. They made plans to defend the colony against the British: build an alarm network, form companies of minutemen, and aiding towns in storing ammunition. The leaders of the Congress were some men you may have heard of, says Susanna. Do you know Sam Adams (he has nothing to do with beer, giggles Susanna) and John Hancock? They are wanted by the British! They fled 8 miles away to Lexington. General Gage plans to send 700 troops to seize munitions in Concord.
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| Mini Felicity learns about the plan the Massachusetts Provincial Congress has to save their colony |
What are the Massachusetts colonists planning? This is where that Paul Revere man comes in.
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