LIBERTY TRAIL

THE OLD ELM ON PIERCE STREET
(Letter to a Soldier)
 

 
Dear Craig,
 
In my last letter, I told you about the Liberty Walk we were organizing to raise the historic awareness of the role Liberty played in the founding of our country.  A curious synchronicity of Liberty Tree symbols emerged this week.  It began as I was passing out the Liberty Walk flyer/map along Pierce Street in our town's historic district... 
 
                               
 
Three doors past the Kentish Guard Armory, I slipped a flyer into the "mail slot" of a door that was slightly ajar.  The older man living inside heard me and came out to see what I was up to.  As we chatted, he pointed out a huge elm tree in his front yard, "That is the second oldest elm tree in Rhode Island, and the town wanted to cut it down.”  It is rare to see such a magnificent American Elm that has endured elm disease.
 
Three days later, I went walking with my friend Paula, who's a yoga instructor, through Pawtuxet Village.  In 1772, it was here where Rhode Island patriots took the first organized military action towards independence by attacking and burning the British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspée. This was America’s “First Blow for Freedom” that led directly to the establishment of permanent Committees of Correspondence, unifying the individual colonies, and starting the process of the American Revolution. 
 
The cities of Cranston and Warwick celebrate this historic role hosting the annual Gaspee Days Parade each June.  Paula showed me the park where the cities had recently planted a new elm sapling, and I thought, “wow, an old elm on Monday and now a new elm on Thursday.”  Set into the ground in front of the small tree was a plaque, briefly explaining the story of the “Liberty Tree”.  I was not familiar with this story, and so I googled "Liberty Tree" immediately upon getting home.  

THE FIRST LIBERTY ELM 

 
Here’s what I learned:
 
The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous elm tree that stood near the Boston Common in the days before the Revolution. The tree was a rallying point for the growing resistance.  In the years that followed, almost every American town had its own Liberty Tree—a living symbol of popular support for individual liberty and resistance to tyranny. 
 
In 1765 the British government imposed a Stamp Act on the American colonies. It required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. Because the Act applied to papers, newspapers, advertisements, and other publications and legal documents, it was viewed by the colonists as a means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write and read freely.
 
                                          
 
On August 14, 1765, a group of men calling themselves the Sons of Liberty gathered in Boston under a large elm tree near Hanover Square to protest the hated Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty concluded their protest by lynching two tax collectors in effigy from the tree.

During the siege of Boston in August 1775, British soldiers defiantly cut the tree down in an act of spite, knowing what it represented to the colonists, and used the tree for firewood. This act further enraged the colonists. As resistance to the British grew, flags bearing a representation of the Liberty Tree were flown to symbolize the unwavering spirit of liberty.
 
LIBERTY ELM DINER

  
                      
 
The very next day, Friday, October 22, I received an email from Paula, which fell right in alignment with everything else... it referred to a restaurant called The Liberty Elm Diner.
 
OMG, Wendy can you stand it?
 
I am buying this deal...do you know about Groupon?  If not, I shared it awhile ago...sign on under me and I get some $$$$