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Highlights from our virtual mailbag. Please email your letters to us, making them as short as possible. We reserve the right to edit them for length and clarity. For safety's sake, they may be published anonymously, but you must send us your name in your email. We're sorry, but we cannot answer all questions we receive.
What Did the British Call The American Revolution?
Hi -- I am a student at Concord Academy and I was wondering if you could send me
a piece of information for a history project. The particular piece of
information is what did the British call the Revolutionary War?
TS, Concord
We asked members of the Concord Discussion List this question and it prompted a lively debate.
"I'd bet that they called it 'The Rebellion'. That's what they called it when my Mom studied it in school in Toronto." (George Sprott)
"There is a great source collection by Vincent Kehoe entitled We Were
There (available in the Special Collections of the Concord Free Public
Library). It includes documents by both British and Americans
referring to
the Concord Fight. Some of the British letters and accounts refer to
the
Americans as 'rebels,' one of Gen. Gage's letters to 'the alarming state
of publick affairs in this Country,' other items to the 'Hostilities
between Great Britain and America.' While it was happening, at least,
the
Revolution was clearly referred to in a variety of ways. (We have other
collections of documents reflecting the later years of the Revolution as
well.)" (Leslie Wilson, Curator, Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library)
"My 'final' answer would be the 'American Revolution.' The biographies of
Lord North refer to it that way. The other phrases that have been offered
sound good. Something that involves the 'colonies' is always safe. I don't
think that there is a definitive answer. P.S. The Encyclopedia Britannica refers to the disturbances in the colonies
as the, 'American Revolution.'" (Rick Wheeler)
"I've asked around [among my fellow Colonial reenactor colleagues], and I've been given two answers.
One is simple: the American War for Independence.
The other is an interesting non-answer:
'It would seem that the AWI receives very little attention in
British schools. Probably because it was part of a larger conflict
between the Great European powers of the time. World War II gets a great deal
of attention as does the Victorian era and the Norman Conquest. The only
event that they seem to focus on is when the Americans tossed the tea
into
the harbor. The rest seems inconsequential. '" (Abe Fisher)
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Horseback Riding in Concord
I will be visiting Concord. Where is the closest place to go horseback riding? Thank you for your prompt reply.
Kind regards, Margaret Bovaird
Margaret, there is horseback riding available at Verrill Farms at Nine Acre Corner, Concord, as well as Bobby's Ranch in next-door Acton.
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The Old Manse, Sophia Hawthorne, and Emerson
My husband and I recently visited Concord and the Old Manse. I really enjoyed seeing the window where Sophia Hawthorne had used her ring to carve an inscription and where Nathaniel Hawthorne signed it. Do you have an article about this or do you know how I could get some literature about it?
Also, the docent at the Manse said that there was a small biography that was just published about one of Emerson's female relatives who tutored students who were having difficulty at Harvard. Could you send me the name of this book?
I know that these questions do not deal with your magazine specifically, but I am hoping you can help me. Thanks.
Terry Fyne, California
Leslie Wilson, Curator, Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library answers: "A number of articles for the general reader about the Hawthornes at the
Manse have been published over the years, and some books as well.
James R.
Mellow (who wrote a wonderful full-scale biography of Hawthorne) wrote
an
article entitled 'Hawthorne at the Old Manse' for the Nov. 1980 issue of
Gourmet. James Willert's 'A Long Stone's Throw from the River'
appeared
in the July, 1973 issue of Yankee. Allen French's 'Hawthorne at The Old
Manse' was published by the Trustees of Reservations, which owns and runs
the Manse. Julian Hawthorne, I believe, wrote about the 'words on the
window' in his biography of his parents. Paul Brooks's 'The Old Manse
and
the People Who Lived There' includes a chapter about the Hawthornes.
The book that you inquire about sounds as if it may be Joan Goodwin's
'The Remarkable Mrs. Ripley'. However, that is by no means a small book,
and Mrs. Ripley was a relative of Emerson only by marriage, so your
docent may have been thinking of something else.
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Text: ©1999
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