The name of Marblehead Museum’s new exhibit, “Voices of Independence: Marblehead in the Revolution,” might make you think that it focuses entirely on the men of Marblehead who fought in the Revolutionary War. And while the exhibit does contain incredible military artifacts like a muster role from Glover’s Regiment and swords used by Marbleheaders in the Battle of Bunker Hill, it also shows that the town has a long history of independence that goes beyond those more familiar war stories. As Jarrett Zeman, the museum’s associate director of programs and operations, put it, “Independence is one of the things that really defines us as Marbleheaders, and this is an exhibit that explores how Marbleheaders from many different walks of life declared independence in very different ways.”
Women’s contributions have traditionally been overlooked by historians, but that’s far from the case at “Voices of Independence.” While they couldn’t participate in combat, the exhibit shows how Marblehead women were able to contribute to the Revolutionary cause from the home front. As Zeman explained, they did this by “turn[ing] shopping and sewing into patriotic duty.”
Instead of buying British tea, they brewed their own from local plants. Instead of using soft, luxurious British silk, they spun their own cotton and wool to make coarser, more humble clothing (the exhibit features a real Colonial-era spinning wheel as well as a reproduction of one of these not-so-comfortable shirts). Marblehead women even covered a British East India Company tea chest with anti-British slogans and paraded it through town, something you can also see a reproduction of at the museum.
Privateering, essentially a legal form of piracy, was another way Marbleheaders contributed to victory against the British. Sailors and fishermen, independent and adventurous types by nature, were drawn to the open seas to carry out this lucrative but highly risky endeavor. John Conway, a Marbleheader who captained a privateering ship called The Terrible, was captured by the British during an attempted raid but escaped while being escorted to prison, managing to steal a guard’s red jacket in the process. He later had a footstool upholstered with the sleeve of that jacket, which the exhibit has on display. Seeing it up close, it isn’t hard to imagine the satisfaction he felt resting his feet on it after a long day.
One of the most surprising parts of the exhibit is the story of the loyalist shopkeeper Thomas Robie, who was driven out of town after a mob of Marbleheaders, furious at his refusal to participate in the British boycott, ransacked and nearly destroyed his store on Washington Street. His wife, Mary, had strong words for those who jeered at the Robie family as they set sail for their new home, Nova Scotia: “I hope that I shall live to return, find this wicked rebellion crushed and see the streets of Marblehead run with rebel blood.”
As Zeman put it, “While Marbleheaders were accusing King George III of tyranny, they were at the same time behaving very tyrannically to the loyalists who were here in Marblehead.” That hypocrisy certainly complicates the narrative we were taught in school.
In the center of the exhibit stand two drums which tell the story of how the Marblehead’s tradition of independence was carried on much later in history. One may be the drum depicted on Archibald Willard’s famous 1875 painting “The Spirit of ‘76,” which hangs in Abbot Hall, while the other was used by a man named Britt Bartoll to safely escort two groups of Marbleheaders fighting their own battles for independence in the 19th century: women shoe workers who went on strike in 1860 for higher wages and men who marched to the Old Town Hall to enlist in the Civil War one year later. “The Spirit of ‘76,” clearly, is more than just a painting: it’s a town legacy that echoes through the generations.
“Voices of Independence” is on display until Dec. 31 at 170 Washington St. Learn more at marbleheadmuseum.org.
