Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s the winter of 1774-1775. I’m in the Boston Commons with Will Ashton. Young Will and his friends have been sledding down the hill behind the general store and the British soldiers have been repeatedly stomping holes in their trails, but, apparently, that has all changed.
JG: “Master Will, I understand you did a very daring thing.”
WA: “My friends and I went to General Gage today. He’s in charge of the British soldiers that have been breaking our sledding hill. General Gage promised that we’d have the right to our sledding hill and that his men would never break it down again.”
General Gage did honor the children’s freedom to sled and the story was told to the governor who observed that it was impossible to beat the notion of liberty out of the people as it was rooted in them from their childhood.
Read the full account of the incident found in the letters of John Andrews, a Boston merchant.
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
