The Minutemen and Their World

By early 1775, the administrative structure of Massachusetts had come under de-facto local control. Concord had been chosen as the site for an emergency arsenal, which was supplied by a massive smuggling effort. But nearly all citizens of Concord took part in the preparations for war, most by gathering, producing, or storing necessary supplies, even at great personal risk. Many of the men who made up Concord’s militia were veterans of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) or the 1740 Siege of St. Augustine during the War of Jenkin’s Ear, or had other military experience. On the eve of war, the town experienced a relatively-rare moment of unity and peace.

This chapter also explores the demographic shifts taking place in Concord that would have as much effect as the coming war on the town’s character. As the town’s population increased, family farms were becoming smaller and smaller as they were divided among successive generations of sons. Gross connects stability in the town to the paternal authority that the promise of a large inheritance guaranteed; as land became harder to come by, the power structure of Concord society began to shift. However, though the oldest families in the area were perhaps especially affected by this trend, their status was secured to some degree by the fact that they also owned former common lands, but this only delayed the problem by a generation. The need for new land to sustain the social order caused families to buy land to the north- and southwest, gradually pushing the frontier further to the west. On top of this, by the time of the Revolution, the soil within Concord town lines was depleted from intensive use.

Gross illustrates the changing contours of Concord society by exploring the life paths of two “sons” of this period: Stephen Barrett, the son of Colonel James Barrett, and Purchase Brown, the son of Captain David Brown, the leader of a Minuteman company. At 24, Stephen Barrett was still attending school, when he wasn’t managing his father’s farm. His future was set: he would soon marry his second cousin, Sarah Barrett, and establish his own household, whenever his father gave him the land to do so. Barrett was lucky in that he would receive a large inheritance from his father which would allow him to start his adult life with an advantage over many others, but this also meant that he had very little freedom in determining his own future.

Purchase, the oldest of the thirteen Brown children, would not inherit his father’s land in Concord, and thus perhaps his best hopes for a prosperous adulthood would be to move outside of town. Though the Browns were a prominent Concord family, David Brown’s 100-acre farm could not be divided further without affecting its usefulness, and he was apparently unwilling to buy land for his eldest son, as was common custom, instead promising each son a monetary inheritance. Purchase faced steep odds as a young adult starting out on his own, but he was one of many who took their chances on the frontier.

Additionally, Purchase had the uncertain privilege of starting adulthood early, far from the controlling presence of his father.

As more and more of its sons left for (literally) greener pastures, Concord’s leaders took an active hand in making sure that the town remained prosperous by limiting who could live there; typically, those who were “warned out” were “paupers, not hardworking men” (91). The practice of “warning out” was driven by the fact that towns would support their residents in hard times; however, it often created the situation where an individual would be kicked out of several towns in succession, only to end up back at their birthplace. Unfortunately, these towns “were seldom pleased at the return of their prodigal sons; reversing the process, they soon bounced the unfortunate travelers back toward the towns that had started the chain.” (90)

Economic insecurity was a fact of life in Massachusetts, even for those who were considered prosperous. The British government had banned colonial paper money, and for this and other reasons most business was done on credit. Agriculture was the anchor of the economy, especially since the 1760s, when West Indian markets for goods from Massachusetts and other colonies began to weaken.