April Morning Places Flashcards
Lexington
Lexington is a rural farming village in Massachusetts, located not far from Boston, and is on the Menotony Road to Concord. Lexington is a small, quaint town full of deeply Christian, hardworking people, who want better for their children than they had for themselves. The town is home to diverse political opinion as well, though the majority of it opposes the heavy-handedness of the British presence in Boston. Lexington is home to a common, park-like area (also referred to as a “green”), which serves as a meeting place for various purposes. Lexington is also home to a church meetinghouse, which is central to the town’s activities and people. Among those who live in Lexington are Adam Cooper and his family, Joseph Simmons and his family, the Reverend, and numerous others. The town, when assembled, boasts of a militia of some 70 men and boys to defend it. The town becomes the site of British atrocities, as the British fire, unprovoked, into the militia assembled there, killing many. The British later loot the houses of valuable possessions, and burn down three buildings.
Church Meetinghouse
The Lexington Church Meetinghouse is located in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is central to village activity and village life. It is where the Committee meets, which determines town policies and actions related to things like resistance against the British, and militia coordination. It is also where the Reverend gathers the people of town together to perform Christian worship services, and other Christian ceremonies, such as marriages. After the attack on Lexington, the bodies of the dead locals, including Moses Cooper, are laid out in wake. Candles are kept burning in the church overnight so the bodies do not have to lay in darkness.
Concord
Concord is a town along the Menotony Road past Lexington, and is the objective of the British column that leaves Boston. They intend to seize weapons and supplies being stored there, but arrive too late. Far from their base in Boston, and pressed in on all sides by American rebels who are flocking to defeat them after word of the Lexington atrocities have spread, the British must retreat from Concord, back to Lexington, and back to Boston.
Menotony Road
Menotony Road is a long road that stretches from Boston, travels through Lexington, and passes onto Concord. It is a road the British troops use heading to and from Concord. It is also along this road that the British column is constantly assaulted and harassed by local militia, making it a harrowing experience for the British troops.
Boston
Boston is the capital city of Massachusetts colony, is the hotbed of American revolutionary activity, and is the British base of operations in New England as such. It is from Boston that a British column of troops, the advance elements commanded by Major Pitcairn, heads to Concord to seize weapons and munitions being stored by opponents to the British Crown. A network of riders likewise fans out from Boston as the British depart, to warn the surrounding towns and countryside of the British advance on Concord.
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