Massachusetts is the birthplace of the American Revolution.

But it didn’t all start with the “shot heard ’round the world” at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Founding Father John Adams said revolution was stirring in people’s minds more than a decade before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

It was driven by a change in the way the colonists thought about the role of government and British leaders’ control over their lives.

Suffolk University history professor Robert Allison, who also helps lead the Boston-based nonprofit Revolution 250, joined WBUR’s All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins for an American Revolution 101, of sorts.

He shares some lesser-known highlights of what Massachusetts did to help bring about American independence.

Interview Highlights

On the British imposing taxes from an ocean away:

“Taxation without representation was the critical thing that sets all of this in motion … the idea that this elite in London would decide what was best for people in Revere, Chelsea, these other places, in the far-flung reaches of the empires. … And it’s not just, ‘We don’t like these taxes,’ but, ‘We don’t like the fact that we’re being taxed without our consent.’

“The critical thing happens in 1774 when the British government suspends the Massachusetts government and closes the port of Boston, and this leads to some towns, which hadn’t been part of this movement, like Concord, to say, ‘Well, wait a minute — we can’t have a town meeting. We can’t choose our own representatives.’ “

On why the British government sent troops here:

“In June of 1774, we have the second British occupation. There had been an occupation in the late 1760s, which culminated in the Boston Massacre. [That’s when] five Bostonians were shot in the street by British soldiers. The British, though, withdraw the troops. And in fact, all of the officers and soldiers are put on trial and are acquitted — except for two who are branded on their thumbs and sent to New Jersey. And then in 1774, after the destruction of the tea — the Boston Tea Party — Parliament suspends the Massachusetts government and also sends troops to enforce the law, and also a new governor, General Thomas Gage.

“So by this time, you essentially have two different governments emerging. One is General Gage with a commission from the king, and the other is the Provincial Congress. It had been the Massachusetts Assembly. They declare the office of governor vacant, and they take up residence in Watertown. By this time, the towns are also mustering militias, creating military companies, and Gage is coming to realize that his hold on power is really limited to where he has troops.”

On what life was like for colonists living across the street from British troops and their families:

“In some cases they get along, in other cases they don’t. … But what happens when the British occupy Boston in 1774 and 1775 is a lot of the Bostonians who are hostile to the British rule leave town. And also, a lot of people from surrounding towns who are fine with the empire move into Boston to be under this protection. Suddenly, people are turning on neighbors who they thought were supportive of the crown policies, and so they find they have to leave town because now angry mobs are surrounding their houses.”

On a battle that happened just over a month after the widely-known battles of Lexington and Concord — the Battle of Chelsea Creek:

“The Battle of Chelsea Creek happens between Noddle’s Island — what is today East Boston — and the town of Chelsea. And Chelsea at that time also included Revere. And Noddle’s Island was used to graze livestock – cattle, sheep, pigs. … And the Provincial Congress says we need to get livestock away from the British. … So groups of the militia, actually the militia troops from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut — the first time men from three different states fight together under one command — they go and rouse livestock from Chelsea Creek. The British try to intercept them with a vessel that winds up running aground. And the Americans also have a piece of artillery. They fire on [the British vessel, and] they capture this sloop, the Diana, burn it, take everything off first. So [it’s the] first naval capture, first time the Americans use artillery, and also the first time men from different states fight together under one command.”

On Black patriots in Massachusetts fighting in the Revolutionary War, while at the same time Africans were enslaved here:

“That’s true, and it really is the revolution that leads to the end of slavery in Massachusetts. When Washington arrives, he’s really shocked to see that there are militia units from the towns in Massachusetts that have Black [people] in them. In some cases, they were enslaved, and it was their owner who sends them to do militia duty. And Washington at first says, ‘We don’t want any more Black [soldiers] serving.’ By the end of the year, the end of 1775, he’s reversed that because he knows they need every available person they have … and a lot of African Americans, as well as Native Americans, were part of these militia forces.”

On the Declaration of Independence being signed in Philadelphia, not Boston:

“Well, what we like to say is that the revolution happened in Massachusetts, then they went to Philadelphia to fill out the paperwork. It turns out to be very important paperwork, and in fact, the leader — the colossus of independence — was John Adams, and of course the president of the Congress was John Hancock.

“And the Declaration arrives in Massachusetts on July 16 at the Provincial Congress in Watertown. They have it sent to a printer in Salem, who has it then sent to every town to be read at the town meetings. … And the town clerks write it into the town minute book. So you can go to any town hall [today], pretty much, and see this. … This is a recognition that we are here as part of an independent nation. We are something else. This is a new beginning for us.”

On what seems particularly relevant now, 250 years later:

“The revolution really succeeds because it brings in so many different people into it with this promise of individual liberty, the ability to govern yourself — and these are fundamental ideas. And it’s really an argument about political power, who should wield it.

“And what we’ve learned from looking at revolutions, generally, is that the easy part actually is getting rid of the bad old government, although it seems impossible at the time. The much more difficult thing is creating something that won’t be worse, and the real achievement here is creating something that will lead to a society in which all men really are created equal, have these certain rights which we say are given to them by their creator. It’s not just, ‘We don’t like the British tax policies or we don’t like the fact that the Port of Boston is closed’ — [it’s that] these are denials of this universal truth.”