Liberty

“I will call it an error and presumption because I swerved from the accustomed  flowry path of female delicacy to walk upon the heroic precipice of  feminine perdition” – Deborah Sampson Gannett, 1802 

Liberty was both an ideal and a call to action to the New Englanders who fought for independence. Colonists likened their revolutionary actions to freeing themselves from an oppressive tyrant. Battlefields ranged from city streets and harbors to rural fields and farms and involved multiple nations, each with its own political agendas. For those who took part in the conflict, the American Revolution represented far more than a war against Britain. People joined the fight for personal reasons, whether to liberate themselves from slavery or prove their heroism. Some of those individuals recorded their experience of war in letters, journals, and engravings, which became cherished family heirlooms. New Englanders also preserved artifacts associated with historic battles as souvenirs of the revolution, such as the objects in this gallery.