10/02/2026
How did local pastors promote ideas of liberty and freedom in the Age of Revolution? Join Dr. Anne Mason at 1pm this Saturday (10/3) for a walking tour of Burial Hill that will explore the relationship between religion and political revolution in the 18th century. The tour will include the grave of Rev. Chandler Robbins (1738-1799), pastor of the First Church of Plymouth, who used his pulpit to champion the cause of independence in America and beyond. This pamphlet in the Pilgrim Hall Archives preserves an address Robbins gave at a "civic festival" held in Plymouth on January 24, 1793 to celebrate the creation of the French Republic. He declared that the French struggle for independence "reminds us of the magnanimity and patient valour of our ARMIES--the enlightened wisdom and patriotism of our COUNCILS--which, by the blessing of almighty God, finally achieved our political salvation--gave us a happy NATIONAL CONSTITUTION, and fixed us in the peaceable enjoyment of INDEPENDENCE and FREEDOM." The "Ode to Liberty" sung at the event and published with Robbins' address was composed by Joseph Croswell of Plymouth, who was an eyewitness of the Boston Massacre in 1770.
