Battle of Concord (1/20)

At Concord, tensions turned to “shots fired”. American colonists, fed up with the unreasonable taxes imposed on them by the British via the Stamp Act of 1765, and irate about the 1770 massacre of Bostonians, lost their cool and turned to the musket for action.

In the northeast colonies, toward the end of the 18th century, civil unrest quickly turned to open warfare when colonists stood up to British rule at the North Bridge in Concord in the spring of 1775. Colonists opened fire at British troops maneuvering into Concord with orders to disarm the local populace. This action, though not a pitched battle, was the first skirmish in the Revolutionary War and was the “shot heard around the world”.  The town of Concord went on to celebrate and fight for liberty throughout the 19th century by serving as a anti-slavery hub and a safe, stop-off location for runaway slaves travelling the underground railroad.