These Are The Times ....

"'Tis mid-October.  [There are] changes aplenty in this year of our Lord 1775.  The turmoil that holds sway in the colony is exceedingly great.  My conscience seeks to balance the mutterings of my friends with the trials of family survival.  Father does not understand."

These words, penned by seventeen-year-old Joshua Fitch, the second of five sons born to James and Eliza Fitch, reflected a young man's dismay at having to choose his family's needs over personal desires.  As did many of his contemporaries, Joshua Fitch kept a journal into which his "fervent" thoughts, "gravest" concerns and "deepest" desires were gently placed.

Perhaps it was the naivete of youth; maybe it was the inevitability of the young's belief they know more than their elders.  Young Joshua saw it as "plain as the nose on my face."  Although most colonists expressed little interest in pursuing independence from Great Britain, many young men were swept up in the revolutionary fever that was beginning to fester in 1775, albeit slowly.  While the April skirmishes of Concord and Lexington still smoldered in young colonial minds, most of the populace saw them only as defending their own rightful liberties as freeborn Englishmen.

James, however, a prosperous businessman in Watertown, a growing community along the Charles River not far from Boston, wished to draw little attention from the British to his holdings.  A practical man, James had tried to teach his headstrong son the wisdom of discretion.  He saw the need for change and knew eventually that change must come "at the greatest possible cost."  Neither a revolutionary nor a Loyalist, James Fitch was a man who saw the survival of his family as paramount.

Loyalties were divided, often within families.  But the pressing daily needs of the family overshadowed the personal wants of individual members.  T'was often the stalwart patriarch that kept sons in check lest emotions tear the family asunder.

A stern man, James encouraged and expected hard work from his sons.  He believed a man's worth came from the sweat of his brow. "The forge and mill are but the means to temper my sons."  A formal education just filled young heads with "lofty ideas." 

Joshua was a strapping lad, having managed to avoid the smallpox that swept through the Fitch children.  He was placed in charge of the family's grist mill just this year while his father busied himself running the town's only blacksmith and livery shop.

Young Joshua learned to keep his views to himself.

It remained for Eliza to teach her sons to read and write, lessons that Joshua embraced with a "fervent nature."  Blessed with a quick and inquiring mind, young Joshua often displayed an uncommon resolve duly noted by his mother.  It was also she who instilled a strong sense of justice in her sons.  One defining moment occurred when Joshua was twelve.  Two older boys were tormenting his older brother, John, who was disfigured from the smallpox.  His anger kindled, Joshua "thrashed those boys soundly," sending a clear message to all who would set upon him and his family.  He was not afraid to "set the record straight" where injustice reared up.

Joshua was left to confess his concerns about the events unfolding around him to Reverend Nathanial Cooke, a young pastor who seemed to understand the boy's desires.  In truth, Joshua had precious little time to pursue any thoughts of revolution.  The mill kept him busy enough.  But neither was he blind ... and what he saw bothered him greatly.

The Massachusetts colony saw a fair number of British troops quartered in and around Boston.  Almost daily stories were told of conflicts between British regulars and local townsfolk.  The Crown's amended Quartering Act of 1774 left little reason to enjoy the red-coated troops' company.  While that bill limited the quartering of troops to unoccupied buildings, such as barns, it did not provide that soldiers be supplied with provisions.  This became a task the regulars filled with great relish.

As the months rolled by, the members of the small community began feeling the weight of the visiting soldiers.  Patrols from Boston became more frequent favoring rough treatment of local businesses in their quest for supplies.  The grist mill became a favored stop.

"The [British] ruffians are no more than thieves who take what they want.  Their needs matter less than the pleasure they exact from rough handling of those who supply [those] needs."

During their latest visit, Joshua was manhandled by several regulars as they took a disproportionate share of flour.  Joshua confided to Reverend Cooke that he and his friends wanted to go down to barracks "and do as they pleased." 

Talked out of his impetuousness by the pastor, Joshua brooded about the event for several days.  He saw his inability to protect the family enterprise as a personal affront to his honor.  Certain that his father wouldn't bless his need to confront his tormentors, he went to his mother.

"Father turns a blind eye to the happenings in our midst," he complained. "I fear for the future."

Eliza took her son's hands in hers, a measure that always tended to calm her son.  "You cannot know what is in his heart," she said.  "He has only thoughts for the best that Providence can provide for us."

"But...."

"Nay," Eliza interrupted her son.  "You do not remember the trials we endured when the French and Indians set upon us those many years ago; you were but a babe in arms.  Your father remembers all too well the horrors of that time. He wishes to spare you the sufferings that must come from such events."

Eliza saw her words had fallen upon the deaf ears of youth.

Joshua pulled his hands from hers and stared out the window with a faraway look in his eyes.  Reaching into his pocket, he fingered the burnt remains of a page from a short treatise one of his friends had given him.

Shortly after Christmastide, a hitherto unknown colonial had written a pamphlet which he called "Common Sense."  Thomas Paine's thoughts spread like wildfire reaching young Joshua by late January, 1776.  Excited, Joshua showed his father Paine's pamphlet, hoping it would stir similar emotions. 

The elder Fitch threw the papers into the fire, forbidding him to speak of the matter again.  "The business at hand is this family," James said.

Struck by an "obvious conclusion," Joshua wrote in his journal:

"My honor and my duty call on me to exercise the strength and firmity that Providence has bestowed on me, to be resolute in dealing with those who would oppress us."

From his dealings at the mill, Joshua became acquainted with several men in the Sons of Liberty, a group formed to protect colonists' rights and act against the abuses of the British government.

Keenly aware that the Sons of Liberty would never allow them to join without the permission and blessing of their parents, Joshua and four friends formed a band in order to harass the British patrols.  Keeping their activities secret to avoid reflecting poorly on their families, the young men hoped to "maintain our ground against the enemy." 

To the small group's misfortune, or perhaps to divine Providence, the boys never had the chance to carry out their plans.  Faced with stiff opposition from the newly formed Continental Army, the British, and most of the Tory population in the area, abandoned Boston on St. Patrick's Day and sailed to Canada.

Joshua and his friends were left to talk about the events unfolding around them while they "lamented over our unfulfilled spirit."  But talk mattered little where action was ordered.  And action was a young man's fancy. 

He would join a regiment being formed nearby for the Continental Army.  Indeed, he would "provide measure for measure."

Joshua Fitch made a decision. 

Written for:

SURVEY

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Word Count:  1303