DEERFIELD — While the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the town of Deerfield was ahead of the curve.
As the spirit of revolution made its way across the 13 colonies, residents of Deerfield were divided in their allegiances to loyalty or liberty. On Tuesday, June 25, 1776, at 4 p.m., the existential question of the future of the United States would be debated in a Town Meeting, making the town one of several to put a stake in the ground over independence.
While a modern Town Meeting may include debate on a fiscal year budget, a proposed capital purchase or a citizen’s petition, the Deerfield Annual Town Meeting on June 25, 1776, debated whether to signal support for the Patriot cause for independence from Great Britain, despite the unknown repercussions it would have for the livelihood of its residents, half of whom were allegiant to the Loyalist cause.
“I think everybody has the impression that everybody was in favor of independence from Britain, or trying to pursue a feeling that we should have self-rule here, but there were definitely people, either for economic reasons or other personal ideological beliefs, [who] didn’t really go along with that,” explained Amanda Lange, Curatorial Department director and curator of historic interiors at Historic Deerfield, and curator of the “A Town Divided: Deerfield in the Age of Revolution” exhibit.
As described in an essay on Deerfield in the 17th century that is available from the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA), life for the young men and their families living in 17th- and 18th-century Deerfield was nuanced, with both peaceful and hostile interactions between settlers, displaced Native American tribes seeking to protect their lands, and the English and French, who were fighting their own battles for expansion.
While Deerfield had been no stranger to conflict, the rising tide of revolution was ready to add another complex and conflicting chapter to the town’s history. While much of the violent fighting of the Revolution took place in eastern Massachusetts and elsewhere in the Northeast, western Massachusetts still found itself involved in the fight for independence.
Lange explained that the conflicts surrounding the debate over liberty or fealty erupted before 1776, with Loyalists in Deerfield, in some cases, fleeing town. One such man was Nathaniel Dickinson, who left Deerfield in 1775 to seek refuge in Boston, a Loyalist stronghold. Others in town, like the outspoken Loyalist Rev. Jonathan Ashley, or the strong-willed patriot Joseph Stebbins, represent different ends of the spectrum of sentiments in Deerfield at the time.
On top of the existing community division, another pressure point on the town and state of Massachusetts occurred in 1774 with the passage of the Intolerable Acts as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
Lange said this move by the British was something of a “breaking point” for many, and included restrictions on Town Meetings.
“That was very, very upsetting to a lot of people in western Massachusetts,” Lange explained, adding that a mob with Deerfield residents gathered in a Springfield courthouse to pressure judges that were appointed by the British, and not elected locally, to resign.
With division already flaring in Deerfield, on top of direct pressure on a democratic principle from the Intolerable Acts, this Town Meeting encapsulated complex social and political sentiments into one schoolhouse on June 25.
Based on what is known of that meeting, the moderator, Col. David Field, was elected to serve that day. Notably, he was sympathetic to the Patriot cause, but his daughter was married to a Loyalist, showing how the divide impacted familial relations.
Lange noted that there’s no record of those in attendance, or how each person voted, but the meeting would’ve only had white males in the merchant class of Deerfield represented to vote, compared to the open Town Meetings of the modern era.
It is understood that this vote was close, but the article would pass and signal Deerfield’s support of independence, even if the margin was tight.
“It’s a brave action, and I’m sure carried a lot of risk,” Lange said, “but it also divided the town between those who were willing to support independence and those who weren’t, and not everybody was in agreement, but they did get a simple majority that passed this resolution, so it meant that the majority of the people who were there, who actually made the meeting, passed this.”
The minutes from this meeting still exist today, and are with the Deerfield Town Clerk’s Office. On that tanned paper, the meeting minutes put Deerfield’s defiance into the record.
