The Coffin House, occupied by the Coffin family for over three centuries, was part of a larger farm and tannery complex during the American Revolution. On the eve of the war, Joshua and Sarah (Bartlett) Coffin lived in the Newbury home along with their nine children and an indentured servant hired to assist in the family tannery. Joshua unexpectedly died the year before the war, in 1774, leaving Sarah a widow with her husband’s estate to manage and a tannery to maintain. A little more than a year after Joshua’s death the American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, with the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Between 1775 and 1781, Sarah, referred to as “Widow Sarah Coffin” in town records, supplied Newbury with finished leather, and specifically shoe leather, which was likely intended for Continental soldiers. Sarah was also compensated by Newbury for caring for the town poor in her neighborhood. In the years after the war, Sarah Coffin continued to oversee the family estate and in 1785, at the age of 60, she distributed the estate among all her surviving children. Sarah Coffin’s story is a unique example of the role everyday women played during the American Revolution which is rarely documented.

Otis House is the last surviving mansion in Bowdoin Square in Boston’s West End neighborhood, with deep family ties to the American Revolution. Harrison Gray Otis and his wife Sally Foster Otis witnessed revolutionary-era Boston firsthand as children. Otis’s aunt, Mercy Otis Warren, and uncle, James Otis, were key figures during the American Revolution. The Otis House tells the story of domestic life in post-Revolution Boston and features important objects connected to the conflict, including a desk and bookcase confiscated by the British during their occupation of Boston, as well as a couch made in honor the Marquis de Lafayette’s triumphant tour of the United States in 1824.

Pierce House is one of the last surviving examples of seventeenth-century architecture in the city of Boston. During the American Revolution, Colonel Samuel Pierce participated in the fortification of Dorchester Heights. His remarkable personal papers and diaries allow us to explore everyday life during the war. Pierce was “a regular guy”—a middle-class farmer, not a politician or general or wealthy merchant. His journal entries offer visitors an eyewitness account of how events such as the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord were perceived by those living nearby and how the unrest and eventual war interrupted and shaped daily life.

This country estate overlooking Quincy Bay transports you to the eve of the American Revolution era and tells the story of a woman’s work to preserve her family’s history more than one hundred years later. Col. Josiah Quincy built the house, where from a third-floor perch he reported the movement of British ships to General George Washington in 1776. Josiah Quincy, Jr. (who supported American independence) defended the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre along with John Adams while his brother Samuel Quincy (who supported the Crown) was the prosecutor. The Quincy family played key roles in the social, political, and intellectual life of Massachusetts for generations, producing three mayors of Boston and a president of Harvard.

The 230-acre site includes a 1690 manor house that served as the country seat of wealthy Newburyport merchants. Among them was Nathaniel Tracy, who outfitted a fleet of privateer vessels during the American Revolution. Upon his death in 1796, Tracy’s widow sold the farm to Offin Boardman, who had achieved fame during the Revolution for his daring exploits aboard privateer vessels, which landed him in prison in England twice.

Framed by dense woods and set in rolling hills overlooking a pristine section of the Kennebec River, the 1762 home built by Jonathan Bowman is a rare survivor of domestic eighteenth-century elegance in a rural setting. Although it is difficult to imagine today, the Kennebec River was busy with shipping traffic through the eighteenth century. During the revolutionary era, Bowman and his best friend Charles Cushing rallied against the Tories of Pownalborough, where a violent civil war based on long standing conflicts of politics, religion, and personal animosities played out. And, through the work of our Recovering New England’s Voices initiative, we have further insight into the dramatic story of Cicero—a man enslaved by Jonathan Bowman. Cicero, who ran away to join George Washington’s troops, participated in several key battles before being returned to enslavement in Bowman’s household.

At Sayward-Wheeler House, overlooking the York River, free and enslaved people lived in close proximity as the dramatic events of the American Revolution unfolded around them. Enslaved household members Prince and Cato sought freedom, while the wealthy property owner, Jonathan Sayward, found himself at the center of turmoil. New research gives insight into why Sayward was against the colonies rebelling and how it impacted his relationship with the town. Our revamped tour experience will also dive deeper into the stories of Cato and Prince, both of whom joined the Continental Army, and what their lives were like after the war.

In 1709, the Gilman family built a garrison, or fortified structure, near the banks of the Squamscott River, where they had established profitable sawmills. The interior of this unusual home reveals walls constructed of massive sawn logs. The garrison remained unchanged until the mid-eighteenth century, when Peter Gilman remodeled it in the fashionable Georgian style. An ell with a formal parlor and grand bedchamber were added around 1770 in anticipation of a gathering of the King’s Council, though such meetings never occurred. Gilman, a Tory who was loyal to King George III, experienced the American Revolution under house arrest. Despite his allegiance to the crown, Gilman remained a trusted community member during his confinement and was elected town moderator, presiding over town meetings and making critical appointments to municipal governance committees. Gilman operated a tavern in the house for many years, and subsequent owners—including several women—operated millinery shops, took in boarders, and, in the twentieth century, offered guided tours of the unique property.

Located by the bay on the ancestral homeland of the Narragansett People, Casey Farm once produced food for local and coastal markets and was one of many plantations tied to slavery. During the American Revolution, the Casey family supported independence by supplying goods for the Continentals, a son for militia service, ships as privateers, and their farmhouse as an outpost. One August day in 1777, the farm was the target of a British raid, and a bullet hole from the attack remains in the farmhouse door.