by Kimberly Shawver

Created on: May 05, 2008   Last Updated: August 16, 2010

Boston Massachusetts, the "Cradle of the American Revolution".

Take a walk with me down the historic Freedom Trail and become enveloped in the rich history of the American Revolution. There is no other place in the United States where one can be wholly connected with the events that lead to the historic break from Britain and the valiant efforts of the brave people who shaped our national government.

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail leading to 16 nationally significant historic sites, every one an authentic American treasure. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in 1958, the Freedom Trail today is a unique collection of museums, meeting houses, churches, parks, burying grounds, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond.

Faneuil Hall, known as the "Cradle of Liberty", located near the waterfront, has been a marketplace and meeting hall since 1742. It is a very well known site on the Freedom Trail. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others who encouraged independence from Great Britain.

The original Faneuil Hall was built by artist John Smibert in 17401742 in the style of an English country market, with an open ground floor and an assembly room above, and funded by a wealthy Boston merchant, Peter Faneuil. The ground floor was originally used to house African sheep brought over from the northwestern region of New Hampshire.

Fanueil Hall is now part of a larger festival marketplace, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which includes three long granite buildings called North Market, Quincy Market, and South Market, and which now operates as an indoor-outdoor mall and food eatery.

The gilded grasshopper weather-vane atop Faneuil Hall has a total weight of thirty-eight pounds and is fifty-two inches long. Made of solid copper covered with gold leaf, it has glass eyes which are said to have originally been door knobs. The weather-vane was used as a test to determine if people were spies during the Revolution period. The people would ask suspected spies the identity of the object on the top of Faneuil Hall; if they answered correctly, then they were free; if not, they were convicted as British spies.

Other significant historic sites along the Freedom Trail are: The Boston Common, The State House, Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, King's Chapel Burying Ground, Benjamin Franklin Statue/Boston Latin School, Old Corner Book Store, Old South

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