A History of Dissent: Boston Common
By Richard Campbell The long history of the Boston Common may be obscured to contemporary visitors who wade at the Frog Pond, take merry-go-round rides, or picnic on the lawn- but it has a history as a place of dissent that continues to echo down to this day. What is America’s oldest park began as a 42-acre private cow pasture, owned by a hermit English Clergyman William Blackstone (Blaxton) who received a patent for the property three years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, in 1623. Blackstone suggested to original settlers in Charlestown’s fetid swamp- who were suffering from a shortage of potable water- that they should cross what was then the peninsula of Shawmut to settle on the Boston side. Shawmut in Indian [...]