"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied." The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, yet family ties endured and complicated their relationships in the post-Revolutionary world. Patrick O'Brien of the University of Tampa, writing about the divided families of Marblehead, joins us to talk about the ties sundered by the Revolution and those that remained.

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As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord, communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded. Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by medical student Martin Herrick, and their march to Menotomy, where they fought the British at the Jason Russell House. The Lynnfield Historical Society has told these stories in a series of videos, and will re-enact these events, and will put on a play, "Shadows of 1775," in which the men and women in the town of 1775 will tell their stories to their townsfolk and visitors today.

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Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Charlie Newhall and Jonathan Streff about this expedition, known as "Leslie's Retreat," which is re-enacted in Salem every February. Leslie did not get the cannon, but he and the people of Salem avoided war.

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