The Malden Instructions

In Melrose, Malden, and Everett—what was once all Malden—Independence Day could well be celebrated on May 27th, for those communities declared their independence from Britain on that day, five weeks before the Continental Congress.

On April 19th, 1775, militiamen had gathered at what is today Gooch Park for the march to Concord. By the time they returned, their once idyllic neighborhood had become the edge of a war zone. Siege lines were drawn in the southern part of the town. The Provincial government gave heavy artillery to the Malden militia, who readied the cannons on the banks of the Mystic River, near what is today the Encore casino.

On June 17th, people here gathered atop Waitt’s Mount to watch the smoke rising from the Battle of Bunker Hill. The firing of the cannons could be heard across Melrose. After the battle, the front moved to the very border of Malden, with floating British batteries menacing the town from the Mystic.

People from South Malden moved in with people here in the North while their houses were taken over by the militia. All work in town was now geared towards supplying the soldiers, as well as providing relief for refugees who came streaming out of Boston.

On March 17th, 1776, after ten months of these conditions, the British army evacuated Boston. On May 27th, the Malden town meeting was asked to endorse instructions to their representative calling for independence, which read in part:

“The manner in which the war has been prosecuted hath confirmed us in these sentiments; piracy and murder, robbery and breach of faith…. defenseless towns have been attacked and destroyed; the ruins of Charlestown, which are daily in our view, daily reminds us of this; the cries of the widow and the orphan demand our attention; they demand that the hand of pity should wipe the tear from their eye, and that the sword of their country should avenge their wrongs.”

The vote was unanimous. The shared trauma of war had united the Malden town meeting to declare in words what they had already accomplished in action, a posture given visual form in the provincial seal adopted that year. The remaining homes of the Melrose voters are pictured here.