The eagle’s loud cry was defiant as it swooped down with outstretched talons to begin the struggle of the American Revolution. But the first clamors of the Great War were not cannon or musket balls: they were words. Stirring words, like those from Patrick Henry in 1775, who denounced the British rule by saying, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
With these words, and thousands more like them, the dark shroud of war draped over the colonies. When the dove of peace next reappeared, some six years later, colonial America was no more. With the English royal yoke removed, the colonies rose from the ashes as the thirteen independent States of America. These States were as different and uncommon as the nearly three million people who inhabited the land. Each State, each region, each person looked to the future with optimistic determination. It was now time for prosperity, exploration and expansion. There would be no seas too vast, no mountains too high, or rivers too deep to stop this march forward. The sleeping giant of the United States was awakening to its future and all that it might hold.
This promise of a better life was made by ordinary people who had bold visions, courageous convictions and faith of purpose. These God-fearing individuals had survived the crown and the costly years of the war of independence, and now they were determined to thrive and rise. This belief in a divine destiny was found in every hamlet, every town, every state, but nowhere more so than in Massachusetts and her bustling seaport of Boston in 1787.
