two revolutionary war tours

greg and i began the day at merriweather coffee shop . . 

they have the best avocado toast with a poached egg . . i saw ismael and isaac there . . both remembered me from chanda's days working there. it was nice to see them.

fixing the water bottle in his backpack . . 

still carrying around my detox drink from the coffee shop (still water, sparkling water, a cinnamon stick, chili powder, ginger and lemon juice - so refreshing) . . 

passing the world trade center . . 

several murals were put up downtown telling the story of the revolution . . this one depicts "the miracle escape from the battle of brooklyn heights to lower manhattan." basically, the british chased us out of new york and washington didn't make it back in until the end of the war.

almost at our destination . . 

here we are; waiting for our tour guide. in celebration of the semiquincentenniel, there were several free revolutionary era tours by the tour guide association. a lot of local new yorkers signed up (and attended, even though it ended up raining!). i signed us up for two of them. the first one took us to historical pre-war spots downtown in the financial district.

one of our first stops was a plaque showing the map of the dutch settlement of new amsterdam -

showing stone street where we're standing.

stopping at the site of the second presidential mansion which washington occupied from february to august 1790.

here we are in federal hall which was first used as the city hall from 1699 to 1703 and then used to house the stamp act congress in october of 1765, bringing together representatives from the british colonies who were meeting to come up with a unified strategy against the newly imposed taxes levied by the british parliament. it came at a time of much violence and protests against the presence of the british army. one of the first clashes where blood was spilled was january 19, 1770 at the battle of golden hill.

this is what's left of golden hill (named after a nearby wheat field), now called eden hill just off of gold street.

our tour guide is holding a painting (by charles m. lefferts) of the clash between townspeople and british soldiers. the battle is described here on wikipedia.

a map of the city of new york from 1776 (drawn by major holland).

we walked to city hall which was constructed from 1803 to 1812. the site was originally the first almshouse in nyc - a publicly financed building was built in 1736 (i think replacing a earlier dutch building). in 1757 a debtor's prison and british soldiers barracks were added. the medallion that we're standing on represents the commons where people would congregate to protest and to celebrate.

"here in the ancient commons of the city

where before the time of our national independence

five liberty poles were successively set up

this flag pole of 1921 is placed

in grateful remembrance of all lovers of our country

who have died that the liberty won on these shores

might be the heritage of the world"

liberty poles were erected in protest of the british presence and actions. often they were demolished by the soldiers, and the townspeople would erect a new one.

this was the last photo i have of the morning tour. we lost our guide and what was left of our tour group in the crowd surrounding city hall. we were tired and decided to walk home and rest before our second tour of the day . . 

the second tour was closer to our neighborhood and told the story of alexander hamilton and aaron burr and their duel which took place across the river in weehawken. 

after he was shot, hamilton was taken to a local farmer's house on horatio street where he received last rights from a priest from trinity church and where he then died. burr suffered no legal repercussions as dueling was not prohibited, though it was frowned upon and he lost support from the populace (losing his bid for governor in the following election). 

after this tour we were even more tired, and so were very happy to go home to a light supper and then collapse and fall asleep (obviously i'm writing this on a different day!)