When I first wrote about the Concord home of former slave Caesar Robbins, a group of concerned citizens had just raised enough money to save it from demolition and move it near the North Bridge (in the Minute Man National Historical Park). See that post here.
Quite a lot has happened since then, and it looks like the refurbished house should be open to the public soon, if not in time for Patriots Day 2012, celebrated today.
Concord was once a stop on the Underground Railway, so saving the first Concord home owned by a freed slave is in keeping with that history.
By the way, if you are my reader in Australia or South Korea, you may not know about Patriots Day, which is a big deal in most of New England. People here consider April 19, 1775, the start of the American Revolution, although there are other worthy claimants for that honor. Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott rode to warn colonists that the British were coming, and shots were fired in Concord and Lexington.
Nowadays the day is commemorated on the closest Monday. Schools and libraries close. The Boston Marathon is run. Parades and reenactments sprout all over the region. One of my colleagues gets up at crack of dawn to march between towns in costume, playing the fife. In spite of all the hoopla, there is something about it that touches people.
Excellent. Very glad it was preserved.
I remember watching the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington one year as a kid–I thought it was *awesome*.
I think the history touches a wide range of people in mysterious ways — perhaps just the thought of what it meant to those people then to have hope of a better life and to be willing to do what it would take. Hard to put your finger on what a pure reaction to the hoopla consists of.