Long before the first musket was fired at Lexington, long before the Declaration of Independence was debated in Philadelphia, the people of Worcester, Massachusetts were already dismantling British authority with a methodical determination that would have stunned the Crown had it been paying closer enough attention. Worcester was not a coastal city with a bustling harbor or a seat of colonial government. It was an inland town of farmers, blacksmiths, and tavern keepers, situated roughly forty miles west of Boston. And yet, between 1772 and 1776, this unassuming community in the heart of Massachusetts became one of the most consequential staging grounds for American independence — a place where revolutionary ideas were forged into revolutionary action with remarkable speed and clarity of purpose.
PEOPLE
KEY EVENTS
PLACES TO VISIT
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Printer Who Saved the Record
Isaiah Thomas dismantled his press in the dark. It was April 1775, and Boston was a trap — British soldiers controlled the streets, patriot leaders had fled or been arrested, and a printer who publish...
MODERN VOICE
The Revolution in Ink
Researchers come to the American Antiquarian Society from all over the world to read the Revolution in its original form — not as textbooks retell it, but as people experienced it through print. We h...