Liberty somerville how to#

In reality, the smoke that they saw was emanating from the debris of Concord’s Liberty Pole, which the British soldiers had cut up and set on fire. It is said that on April 19, 1775, the already enraged Minutemen approaching Concord believed the British had set fire to the town. The French wore the cap during the French Revolution in emulation of the American Revolutionary War.Ĭenturies after the Roman era, the idea was revived in the American colonies, where liberty poles were erected in many towns and villages in the interest of dissent from British rule. The Phrygian cap is also the official emblem of France. It can also be found on early American coins and on the state seals of New York, New Jersey, West Virginia and many more. Also known as the liberty cap, it can be found on the official seal of the United States Army and the United States Senate. The cap was not by any means new to history and was worn by slaves in the Roman era demanding their freedom. A Phrygian cap is a red-woven hat symbolic of protest. Upon completion of the pole raising, it was topped off with a device known as a Phrygian cap. This occurrence must have been especially meaningful to one of its most popular members, James (Jimmy) Williams, an African American who was a member of the department since 1846. The men of the original Somerville Engine Company No. This 1853 gesture signified the desire to revolt against oppression and the South’s assault on the rights African Americans. Liberty Poles were erected as a symbol of freedom. Just eight years earlier, in 1853, Somerville’s firefighters erected a flagpole there, giving it that name.Ī prelude to the Civil War, this act occurred during a tumultuous time, when the North was in staunch opposition to the institution of slavery. Union Square was re-named from Liberty Pole Square in 1861. The fact is that the location of Union Square and Liberty Pole Square are one and the same.

Liberty somerville how to#

If you asked the same individual how to get to Liberty Pole Square, however, chances are they would have no idea what to tell you. She worked tirelessly for their food campaign and other causes, and as editor of Peace News wrote against apartheid, colonialism and the development of nuclear weapons.Most Somerville residents could quickly direct you to Union Square. After the War, she promoted the League of Nations and later became a committed pacifist, joining the Peace Pledge Union.

Vera Brittain’s war-memoir Testament of Youth is considered one of the greatest portraits of life during World War One. Its current director is Shami Chakrabarti, who named Vera Brittain as one of the great figures of Liberty’s history in an article in the Guardian. The organisation exists to lobby for the protection of civil liberties and human rights. After a year of studies she left to become a nurse, only returning to her studies after the War.įounded in 1934 in the wake of the National Hunger March of 1932, Vera Brittain was one of a handful of distinguished founding members of Liberty – others included Clement Attlee and E. Vera Brittain, who the College will be commemmorating as part of the World War One anniversary this year, matriculated at Somerville College in 1914. As the campaigning group Liberty turns 80, authors and campaigners have been paying tribute to those who have supported the group’s work down the decades, among them H G Wells, George Orwell and Vera Brittain, an alumna of Somerville College.