SouthBostonHistoricalSociety.com
... preserving & perpetuating the rich history of South Boston.
|
|
**** Click photos to enlarge **** **** Click photos to enlarge **** |
Dorchester Heights strategy key to British evacuating Boston
Robert J. Allison, Chairman of the Department of History at Suffolk University and President of The South Boston Historical Society tells the story of the realities in Boston leading up to the victory at Dorchester Heights, South Boston. The 11-month siege of Boston ended when the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, fortified Dorchester Heights in early March 1776 with cannons captured at Ticonderoga. British General William Howe, whose garrison and navy were threatened by these positions, was forced to decide between attack and retreat. To prevent what could have been a repeat of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Howe decided to retreat, withdrawing from Boston to Nova Scotia on March 17, 1776. |
Robert J. Allison, PhD. is President of the South Boston Historical Society, Professor and Chair of Department of History at Sulfolk University, Vice President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Professor Allison is also involved with several museums and historical societies in Boston. He has delivered public lectures at the Bostonian Society, the Adams National Historic Site, and has presented papers at conferences in the United States, Wales, and Turkey. Click here for Prof. Allison. |
Evacuation Day Ceremonies!
Celebrates 1776 victory at Dorchester Heights! |
One of the oldest and most historic neighborhoods in the US, South Boston is most popularly known as "Southie". Although still popularly
known as a working class Irish-American neighborhood, it is also home to the Boston area's small but vibrant Polish and Lithuanian
communities, and its demographics are rapidly changing with an influx of young professionals.
South Boston contains Dorchester Heights, where George Washington forced British troops to evacuate during the American Revolutionary War ... as well as today's "Innovation District"!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
|
|
John Adams Click photo |
"The oldest written constitution still in use in the world today is the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts written by John Adams a decade
before our own national constitution was written. In which John Adams says that it shall be the duty of the government to educate everybody and then he goes on
to site what they are going to get from their education. He talks about the arts and the sciences .. but he also talks about
trade, commerce and manufacturing. That we have to be an educated people." -- David McCullough, historian & author.
-- John Adams ... an American Made Hero! |
Abigail Adams Click photo |
"I would not want you nor should you wish to be an idle spectator. We have too many high sounding words and too few actions to correspond with them."
-- Abigail Adams, wife & mother of US Presidents. ... an American Made Hero! |