AMESBURY — Local residents got a taste of history on Friday afternoon during a Declaration of Independence reading featuring a Josiah Bartlett reenactor.
The event, which was hosted by the city and part of the recently concluded Amesbury Days, drew about 50 people who gathered in front of the Josiah Bartlett statue for the reading despite blistering heat.
Bartlett, born in Amesbury, was the second person to sign the Declaration of Independence.
The idea for the reading came from local historians, including Patty Hoyt, who approached Mayor Kassandra Gove with ideas about how to celebrate America 250, and through that conversation, this event was born.
Hoyt said though temperatures were high, the event still brought in a number of excited people who listened to reenactor Steve Crosby read the historic document.
“Naturally, it was very hot. But what a wonderful location we had under the trees in front of the library. It was so exciting though, to see people who really made a point of coming out in spite of the heat to celebrate a really important moment of history for our community,” she said.
Among those who attended were Amesbury Middle School civics teacher Tia Costello and some of her students who were involved in a video that recently won a statewide challenge.
The video featured a large number of Amesbury Middle School eighth-graders who read an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. The video was submitted to a statewide challenge called “We Declare!”, and Amesbury Middle School was named one of the winners, earning scholarships for students and other prizes.
Costello said she and a student spoke about their video at the reading, something she was happy they were able to do.
“I had an opportunity to tell the crowd about the ‘We Declare!’ challenge, what it meant for the middle school, recognize the kids who had come during the day, and then they had an opportunity just to talk about their experience. And, one of the students overcame their shyness to talk about how proud they were of what they had accomplished,” she said.
Costello said she enjoyed the event because it allowed her students and the audience to make the connection between their city and a formative national event.
“I think in some ways, it’s a neat local connection. So, it makes the declaration come to life,” she said. “It’s not just this abstract document written by a bunch of men really far away in Philadelphia, but to be able to see that’s there’s a statue of an individual who is from our town to put a face with the name, to make it more like, ‘Oh wow, there were actual people here who were involved in that’. I think it helps sell it a little bit more to the kids, and they take more pride in their community.”