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Reports on the story of Daniel Shays' sale of a sword given to him by General Lafayette. The story was used by Shays' contemporaries as a means of attacking the rebellion. Notes that while Shay died a poor and homeless man, we remember and honor him for devotion to principle and the responsibility he showed toward his neighbors. (JDH)

The article discusses the difference in the antislavery movement among women and men, focusing on the involvement of antislavery advocate Helen Thoreau, sister of writer Henry Thoreau. It describes Helen Thoreau's collection of periodical items in her scrapbook, her involvement with the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society in Concord, Massachusetts, the religious aspects of the abolitionist movement, and the work of Lydia Maria Child, editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard.

The article discusses Shays' rebellion, an uprising in Massachusetts following the Revolutionary War. The author discusses the cultural impact of the insurrection in Massachusetts and comments on how discontent due to taxation and inexperienced leadership from the state government motivated a group of farmers, led by Daniel Shays, to attack an armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. He notes how religious difference affected the insurrection.

The article presents a profile of the pastoral career of the New England Congregationalist minister Reverend Ezra Ripley and the church life of his parish in Concord, Massachusetts during his tenure there. Details are given describing the personality, theological teachings, and local social influence of the pastor between 1778 and 1841. Attention is also given to the relationship shared between the minister and his step-grandson the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. An overview of several church controversies and issues addressed during his tenure is given, including debates over membership, adherence to traditionalism, and church reform.

The article comments on naturalist Henry David Thoreau's gesture of civil disobedience against the Mexican War. Few political protests have achieved so little in their time and gained so much subsequent renown as Thoreau's gesture of civil disobedience against the Mexican War, now approaching its 160th anniversary in July 2006. A year into his sojourn at Walden Pond, on the outskirts of Concord, Massachusetts, and several months after the start of hostilities, Thoreau took the radical step of refusing to pay his taxes in order to protest the war. For that act of conscience, he was taken by the town constable and locked up in the local jail, where he spent the night.

The article comments on the process of urbanization in Concord and Boston. The town of Concord, Massachusetts, is widely celebrated in American culture as a pastoral place. It is understandable that Concord should appear a place apart, cut off from the challenges and trials of an urbanizing nation, for not once in its entire era of local fame, from 19 April 1775 down to the eve of Civil War, did the town reach even the Census Bureau's minimal condition for being considered an urban place--a population of 2,500. But, in fact, Concord--and numerous small towns like it--speaks directly to the urban experience. Its significance lies not in existence as a separate place, but in a wider context, in the changing relations between Concord, Boston, and the larger world.