Robert A. Gross's The Minutemen And Their World

Gross Paper When history is read, it is read from the viewpoints from those at the top: the politicians, the kings, the influential. Robert A. Gross instead gives the reader a view “ from the bottom up” in his book, The Minutemen and Their World. Gross exhibits how the people of Concord saw the American Revolution and in doing so enhances our understanding of it by letting the reader see the common person’s view. Concord is known as the location of “the shot heard around the world” and non-historians would believe Concord to be in favor of the revolution since the beginning, but Concord was still loyal to the crown until nearly the eve of the war. Concordians were very reluctant to renounce their loyalty to the Crown, but eventually were …show more content…
The justices would now have to “surrender their independence to corrupt paymasters across the sea.” To answer to the word received for the newly formed Boston Committee of Correspondence, Concord formed its own committee. The committee composed a assertion of colonial rights and was unanimously endorsed by Concord. With this, the people of Concord were becoming more involved in politics outside of their town and were slowly becoming revolutionaries. After the passage of the Boston Port act in 1774, the Boston Committee called for a complete boycott of all British goods, but that was calling for too much from the towns of Massachusetts. Concord agreed with resistance of the boycott, but was still willing to take the “nonconsumption pledge” with several revisions. Even the condemnation of the pledge by royal Governor Gage did stop the Concordian boycott. The people of Concord believed that slavery by the Crown would be imminent and that it was time for them to militantly protect their