24 City of Worcester: 300 Years
Societal Firsts
The bloodless revolution
Shots may have been heard 'round the world in April of 1775. But an
earlier, lesser-known contretemps in Worcester occurred without a
single shot fired. On September 6, 1774, 4,622 militiamen, half the
male population in Worcester County, ran off a dozen British-appointed
court officials by lining both sides of Main Street for a quarter mile,
making the officials walk the gauntlet and vocally renounce their
allegiance to the King. Massachusetts' military governor Thomas Gage
called in British troops and first sent spies to determine the best place to
send them. Not Worcester, the spies reported. Gage sent the troops to
Concord instead.
Free at last – and first
In 1781, 28-year-old Quock
Walker, the son of Ghanaian-
born slaves, gained his freedom
two years later when his attorney
Levi Lincoln, Sr., defended him
on the stipulation that 'All men
are born free and equal' under
the newly enacted Massachusetts
Constitution. The verdicts
led to the end of slavery in
Massachusetts, and later, the
country.
Have to start somewhere
The first National Political Women's Rights Convention was held in
Worcester's Brinley Hall in 1850. More than 1,000 attendees from 11
different states rallied to defend women's rights to own property, to vote,
and to seek higher education. Noted abolitionist Abby Kelley Foster was
a keynote speaker. It would take 70 years hence for women to get the
right to vote.
Worcester Firsts
source: Worcester Historical Museum
source: Worcester Historical Museum
Federal courthouse mural by Michael
Hachey, 1995.
source: Worcester Historical Museum
