An Afternoon of Revolutionary Ipswich History with four vignettes at the Ipswich Museum and the Whipple House in Historic Ipswich, Massachusetts.
2:00 – 2:30 pm: Encore presentation of “Within These Walls” on the Heard House, Ipswich Museum grounds. For 200 years, a Georgian-style, timber-framed house stood at the corner of Elm and County Streets in Ipswich. Today, the house is the centerpiece of “Within These Walls” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
2:30 pm: “Ipswich, the Birthplace of American Independence” at the Whipple House. In 1687, the Crown-appointed governor Sir Edmond Andros instituted a new, arbitrary tax without consulting the General Court. The Rev. John Wise of Chebacco Parish organized a swift resistance, resulting in the arrest of the town’s leaders.
2:45 pm -3:00 pm: “Jenny Slew, I am here”. Jenny Slew is believed to have been the first person held as a slave to be granted freedom through trial by jury.
3pm – 3:30 pm: The Revolutionary War letters of Joseph and Sarah Hodgkins on the Whipple House grounds. Throughout the Revolutionary War, Lieutenant Joseph Hogkins maintained an ongoing correspondence by mail with his wife, Sarah Perkins Hodgkins. Their exchange of letters conveyed news from the front and the Ipswich community during the war.
