PHEBE BLISS EMERSON

• Eyewitness to the American Revolution

• Grandmother to Ralph Waldo Emerson

  "By the rude bridge that arched the flood
  Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
  Here once the embattled farmers stood,
  And fired the shot heard round the world."

Long before penning these lines, little Ralph Waldo Emerson delighted in his grandmother's first-hand accounts of the fight at Concord's North Bridge on April 19, 1775. Phebe Emerson brings a fresh perspective about what is was really like on that fateful day that began the American Revolution. Mrs. Emerson was the wife of Concord's minister and their home overlooks the Old North Bridge. Phebe discusses how the townspeople felt about the Revolution, and reviews events leading up to it. She also gives audience members a sense of daily life, learning, and work in colonial America.

For more information click here to email Jan Turnquist
or telephone her at 978-369-2467.