Forging Independence | Building a Nation

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, NBWM will open a new suite of conjoined galleries in that explore stories of independence, struggle, and citizenship in the region during the late colonial and early Republican period (1760-1830).

Forging Independence | Building a Nation outlines important regional historical events of the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party, which happened on the locally built and owned vessel the Dartmouth, and Grey’s raid, encompassing the defense of Fort Phoenix, the siege and burning of Bedford Village, and the Bombardment of Fairhaven. The installation frames these war-time events within larger state-wide and national arcs, including the Stamp Tax Crisis, Battle of Bunker Hill, Occupation of Boston, Massachusetts statehood, the adoption of the State Bill of Rights, and early activities tied to nation building. What did it mean to discard a system of governance and colonial allegiance and establish a new country? How did people grapple with and make sense of the revolutionary period and what came after? What ideas and tenets became pillars of that era, how are their legacies felt today, and what complications or tensions arose in that space of negotiation?

The project relies on the Museum’s expansive permanent collection to center and share diverse stories and experiences from Massachusetts, consider the promises and challenges of the American Revolution, and makes connections between past and present. The exhibition utilizes artifacts and archival sources to illuminate the stories of a broad range of individuals, from local merchants who skirted blockades and traded as privateers to the narratives of private citizens and regional residents, including men, women and children of different classes, ages, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and status, immigrants, Indigenous people, and enslaved and free people of color. The exhibition includes the voices and stories of those who served in the American militia, were passionate Revolutionaries, outright ambivalent about Independence, or avid British Loyalists.

Forging Independence | Building a Nation introduces connections between historical events and pressing issues of today, asking visitors to consider what ideas are embodied in the terms and ideas of Independence and Nationhood. Words like patriotism, freedom, taxation, citizenship, liberty, equality, justice, tolerance, and independence serve as keystones within the installation to encourage thoughtful engagement with concepts that transcend the past and directly connect with our present. Associations forged between objects, concepts, and individuals broach insightful civic-minded questions about what it means to be “American.” What did colonial citizens think America should or would be, and how do we today continue to ask those questions and shape that outcome today?