Boston Common

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BOSTON COMMON

BOSTON COMMON is to Boston what Hyde Park is to London—that is to say it is a place where free speech abounds. Carved out in the 1630s within the infant town's borders, Boston Common was where the militia drilled, merchants and their families strolled its 45 acres, working men bowled and played sports, and lovers found shelter. It was also a rallying point where the Liberty Pole was erected before the Revolution, and along its borders stand the city's most symbolic monuments: that to the Battle of Bunker Hill, and Robert Gould Shaw's statue, commemorating his leadership of the first all-black regiment in the Civil War.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bailyn, Bernard. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Carl E.Prince


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