Women were key in the preparations for war in 1775 and their lives were greatly impacted by the fighting on April 19, 1775.
Photo by John Collins
The events of April 19,1775 impacted thousands of people who lived along the Bay Road from Concord to Boston. Although many of the stories about this historic day focus on the movements of military forces, hundreds of Women and non-combatants risked their lives navigating the surrounding chaos. From evacuating families to burying the dead, Women played an important role in the incredible story.
Learn More!
In 2016 Minute Man NHP hired historian Alyssa Kariofyllis to write a series of papers about the women who lived along what came to be known as the Battle Road in 1775.
On April 19, 1775, Rebekah Fiske experienced the horrors of war firsthand. When a fierce battle between British regulars and Massachusetts Militia swept through her family farm Rebekah absconded to a safer location. Over 52 years later, Rebekah still remembered the terror of that experience and narrated her story to a reporter from the Harvard Register. This is her story:
Violet Thayer knew from her own experience that freedom came slowly. Enslaved "from infancy" by Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell, Violet fought to exercise her own agency at a time when Revolutionary conflict transformed the world around her.
