Why We Need A Sense of History

Saturday Stories 

October 13, 2018

I

Cicero once said: "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" History is one my favorite subjects even when I still in school. The more I learn about the past, the more I understand the present – and the more I appreciate myself as a part of the whole. One of the reasons I take pride in being a Filipino in this lifetime is because I have known the richness of my own cultural heritage.

II

This is why I can appreciate other people's cultures even more deeply, yet without any envy and without losing my own sense of identity and self-worth. What I love most about "Johnny Tremain," the classic by Pulitzer Prize winner Esther Forbes set in Boston before the American Revolution of 1775, is that it gave generations of children a sense of history. It made the past accessible, and it became a living reality instead of mere words on a book. Johnny Tremain was a 14-year old silversmith apprentice, but my favorite character is his best friend Rab Silsbee, the 16-year old revolutionary who he describes as "imperturbable" and "self-contained."

III

Then Johnny got burned by melted silver, and since he couldn't use his right hand anymore, he was told to find some other work – and another place to live. Pain is part of everyone's journey at some point, but to see a young orphan alone in the world with nowhere else to go, I find that really heartbreaking. Johnny eventually got a job delivering "The Boston Observer," and he and Rab lived at the attic of the newspaper shop. That same room is used for the secret meetings of the pro-independence leaders led by Samuel Adams and John Hancock – who would eventually be among the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

IV

They refused to be taxed by the British Crown which didn't even represent them in Parliament. On December 16, 1773, when shipments of tea sent by the British arrived, they dumped them overboard as a symbolic and political protest. They fought back when the British retaliated, and it sparked the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775 that lasted until 1783. The Americans won, and on July 4, 1776, they declared their independence as a sovereign nation. Johnny and Rab were part of the Boston Tea Party, that act of defiance that changed forever the course of history for all mankind.
 

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