NPS Photo The Freedom Trail® is an iconic symbol of Boston. Its red brick line snakes through some of the oldest parts of the City. Use the map and the stop list below to explore and listen to stories about each site. The content can be used as a completely virtual tour, or as your own Park Ranger to take along as you walk the Trail. Many choose to begin at Boston Common and follow the trail, but you can explore in person or virtually in any order you wish. If you would like to download the entire tour ahead of your visit, download the official NPS App for free! Search "Boston National Historical Park" and look for "The Freedom Trail®" under "Self-Guided Tours." See instructions at the bottom of the page. Total run time of all 23 audio clips: 94 minutes, 28 seconds. Download this tour and discover many more using the free NPS App!How to find the Freedom Trail Tour on the NPS App
Learn More...Interested in reading about the stories highlighted in this tour? Check out our History & Culture page to explore more. Massachusetts State House: President-Elect John F. Kennedy's "The City Upon a Hill Speech" Credit: WBZ Radio. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Faneuil Hall: Thank you to Yvonne Abraham from the Boston Globe for permission to use a selection of her April 27, 2008 column. "300 Trek Hub's Freedom Trail to Protest War." Boston Globe. August 10, 1969. "A Brief History." King's Chapel. Accessed April 1, 2023. http://www.kings-chapel.org/briefhistorykc.html. "A Tour of the Massachusetts State House." Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.sec.state.ma.us/trs/trsbok/trstour.htm Abdalian, Leon H. "Capt. Daniel Malcolm, Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Boston, Mass." Photograph. [ca. 1920–1960]. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/fj2372607 (accessed April 01, 2023). "Abigail Adams to John Adams, 18 June 1775," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0150. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761 – May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 222–224.] "Abigail Adams to John Adams, 21 July 1776," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0033. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 55–57.] Abraham, Yvonne. "We had a dream." Boston Globe. April 27, 2008. "Anne Hutchinson Banished." MassMoments. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/anne-hutchinson-banished.html. Archer, Richard. As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Blagden, George Washington. Remarks, and a Discourse on Slavery. United States: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854. Google Books Boston (Mass.) Registry Dept. Records Relating to the Early History of Boston... Edited by William Henry Whitmore, William S. Appleton, Edward W. McGlenen, and Walter Kendall Watkins. Boston: Boston, Rockwell and Churchill, City Printer, 1876. Internet Archive. "Building the Bunker Hill Monument." National Park Service. Accessed April 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/building-the-bunker-hill-monument.htm. Carp, Benjamin L. Defiance of the Patriots: the Boston Tea Party and the Making of America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. "Charlestown Navy Yard – A Brief History." National Park Service. Accessed April 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/charlestown-navy-yard.htm. "Copp's Hill Burying Ground." National Park Serve. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/places/copp-s-hill-burying-ground.htm. "Declaration of Independence: A Transcription." America’s Founding Documents. National Archives. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Derby, J. C. Fifty years among authors, books and publishers. New York: Carleton, 1884. https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsamonga00derbuoft/page/618/mode/1up "Desegregation Busing.” Encyclopedia of Boston. Boston Research Center. Accessed April 2023. Desegregation Busing | Encyclopedia of Boston (bostonresearchcenter.org) "Discover Constitution’s History." USS Constitution Museum. Accessed April 2023. https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/discover-learn/history/. Dryfhout, John H. The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1982. Emblidge, David. "The Old Corner Bookstore: 'Rialto of Current Good Things, Hub of the Hub.'" The Concord Saunterer 16 (2008): 103–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23395089. "Faneuil Hall." Boston National Historical Park. National Park Service. January 5, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/fh.htm. "Fire from the Sky: USS Cassin Young and the Okinawa Campaign." National Park Service. Accessed April 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/fire-from-the-sky-uss-cassin-young-and-the-okinawa-campaign.htm. "From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, 24 February 1769," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-16-02-0031. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 16, January 1 through December 31, 1769, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972, pp. 52–53.] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-16-02-0031. "From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 29 March 1817," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6735. [This is an Early Access document from The Adams Papers.] Garrison, William Lloyd. "Address to the Colonization Society." Speech, July 04, 1829. From Teaching American History. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/address-to-the-colonization-society/. "'God made me a man- not a slave': The Arrest of Anthony Burns." Boston African American National Historic Site. National Park Service. August 5, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/-god-made-me-a-man-not-a-slave-the-arrest-of-anthony-burns.htm. Grover, Kathryn, and Janine V. Da Silva. "Historic Resource Study: Boston African American National Historic Site." Boston African American National Historic Site, 2002. Heath Haggerty, Gunner's Mate 1944-1945. Oral History. Boston National Historical Park. August 12, 1983. Hill, Lancaster, Peter Bess, Brister Slenser, Prince Hall, Et al. "The Petition of a Great Number of Negroes Who are Detained in a State of Slavery." January 13, 1777. Transcript. Gilder Lehrman. http://storage.gilderlehrman.org/dec250/Lancaster%20Hill,%20Peter%20Bess,%20Brister%20Slenser,%20Prince%20Hall,%20et%20al.,%20Petition%20of%20a%20Great%20Number%20of%20Negroes%20.%20.%20.%20in%20a%20State%20of%20Slavery%20(January%2013,%201777)%20.pdf -- Original Petition available through Harvard University’s Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions; Massachusetts Archives Collection. v.212-Revolution Resolves, 1777. SC1/series 45X. Massachusetts Archives. Boston, Mass. https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:50257750$1i "Historical Sketch." New England Freedmen's Aid Society Records. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0423. Holmes, Oliver Wendell (Sr.). "Old Ironsides." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 2023. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46547/old-ironsides. Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Edited by Martin Blatt, Thomas Brown, and Donald Yacovone. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001. Horton, James and Lois Horton. Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1979. Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. Kendrick, Stephen and Paul Kendrick. Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and how Their Struggle for Equality Changed America. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004. Kennedy, John F. "The City Upon a Hill Speech." January 9, 1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Accession Number: MR65-221. The City Upon a Hill Speech | JFK Library "King's Chapel, Anglicanism, and the American Revolution." Independent Country, Independent Church: American Independence, James Freeman, and King's Chapel's 1780s Theological Revolution. King's Chapel. Accessed April 1, 2023. http://www.kings-chapel.org/anglicanandrevolution.html. "Letter from Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap, circa 1798." Collections Online. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=99. Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from His Journals and Correspondence. Edited by Sameul Longfellow. Volume II. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891. https://ia902906.us.archive.org/6/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.234862/2015.234862.Life-Of_text.pdf "Massachusetts SP Boston Common and Public Garden." National Archives Catalog. Record Group 79: Records of the National Park Service. Series: National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records. File Unit: National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Massachusetts. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797062 McMillen, Sally G. Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic Life. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2015. "Museum History." USS Constitution Museum. Accessed April 2023. https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/about-us/museum-history/. "New England Woman's Tea Party." National Park Service. March 6, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/boston-womens-tea-party.htm. "New England Woman's Tea Party." The Woman's Journal 4, no. 51. December 20, 1873. "Obituary James T. Fields." Boston Post. April 26, 1881. "Old South Meeting House – Where the Boston Tea Party Began." Revolutionary Spaces. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.revolutionaryspaces.org/old-south-meeting-house/. "Old State House – Seat of Power, Site of the Boston Massacre." Revolutionary Spaces. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.revolutionaryspaces.org/old-state-house/. Otis, James. "Against Writs of Assistance." Speech. February 24, 1761. University of Pennsylvania. Accessed April 1, 2023. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Otis_Against%20Writs.pdf "History of the Old North Church." Our History. Old North Church. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.oldnorth.com/our-history/. "Our Mission." Historic Boston Incorporated. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://historicboston.org/about/. "Paul Revere." National Park Service. August 10, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/people/paul-revere.htm. "Paul Revere House." The Paul Revere House. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.paulreverehouse.org/paul-revere-house/. "Paul Revere's Ride." Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/paul-reveres-ride.htm. "Park Street Church On the Freedom Trail." Park Street Church. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.parkstreet.org/about-us/freedom-trail/. "Phips Bounty Proclamation," Upstander Project, accessed July 2023, https://upstanderproject.org/learn/guides-and-resources/first-light/phips-bounty-proclamation. Sutton, Robert K. "The Wealthy Activist Who Helped Turn 'Bleeding Kansas' Free." Smithsonian Magazine. Aug. 16, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wealthy-activist-who-helped-turn-bleeding-kansas-free-180964494/ Thatcher, Benjamin Bussey. Traits of the Tea Party: Being a Memoir of George R.T. Hewes, One of the Last of its Survivors: With a History of that Transaction, Reminiscences of the Massacre, and the Siege, and other Stories of Old Times. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835. https://archive.org/details/traitsofteaparty00that/page/178/mode/2up. 178. "The Battle of Bunker Hill." National Park Service. Accessed April 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-battle-of-bunker-hill.htm. "The Freedom Trail." Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/trail-sites The Monument to Robert Gould Shaw: Its Inception, Completion and Unveiling, 1865-1897. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1897. "The Real Story of Paul Revere's Ride." The Paul Revere House. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.paulreverehouse.org/the-real-story/. "The Shaw Memorial: A Celebration of an American Masterpiece" (Eastern National, 2002), 39. "To John Adams from Benjamin Stoddert, 25 April 1800." Founders Online. National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4281. "USS Cassin Young." Boston National Historical Park. National Park Service. Accessed April 2023. https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/usscassinyoung.htm. Virginia Wilder Parker, Welder. Oral History. Boston National Historical Park. September 3, 2000. Webster, Daniel. The Orations on Bunker Hill Monument: The Character of Washington and the Landing at Plymouth. New York: American Book Company, 1894. GoogleBooks. Wheatley, Phillis. "Thoughts on the Works of Providence." In Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. London: Printed for A. Bell, bookseller, Aldgate; sold by Messrs Cox & Berry, Boston: 1773. Rare Book Selections. Rare Book & Special Collections Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/september-01. "Women of the Philippines." The Woman's Journal. June 7, 1902. https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:49146414$192i Young, Alfred F. The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. Zabin, Serena. The Boston Massacre: A Family History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2020. |
Last updated: December 20, 2023