On April 19, 1775, an estimated twenty to forty colonists of African or Native American descent fought in the first battle of the American Revolution. On that historic day, those men, often termed “Patriots of Color,” joined approximately 4,000 other men fighting British Regular soldiers along the “Battle Road” from Concord to Boston. 

Native Americans have been planting The Three Sisters for thousands of years. Corn, pole beans, and squash have a symbiotic relationship when planted together. The tall corn stalks provide a structure for the pole beans to climb, while the beans provide nitrogen to the soil. The squash spreads its large leaves along the ground to soak up sunshine, conserve water, and reduce weeds. This tradition of interplanting goes beyond agriculture, though, and has important cultural and spiritual aspects to many Indigenous peoples. 

What was the Provincial Congress? In 1630, when colonists from England settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a charter allowed the settlers to run the colony as they saw fit. Therefore, there was a bottom-up government in addition to a top-down government.