Show Notes
The Treaty of Watertown: Independence, Alliance, and the Fowle House Council Chamber We step into an upstairs council chamber above a shoemaker’s house in Watertown, Massachusetts—where, on July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to a crowd that included Mi’kmaq and Maliseet representatives, and where the next day the Treaty of Watertown was signed as the first international treaty negotiated by the new United States. With historian Marilynne Roach of the Historical Society of Watertown, we trace how the Edmund Fowle House became Massachusetts’ wartime seat of government, what restoration work revealed about the L-shaped chamber and its preserved details, and how archival minutes illuminate daily Revolutionary governance. We also follow the treaty’s 1980s revival by Mi’kmaq veterans, the renewed collaboration with the Grand Council of the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet representatives, and plans for Watertown’s July 18 celebration marking the 250th anniversary.
Chapters
00:00 Watertown Treaty Preview
01:52 Fowle House Restored
05:43 Council Work In Wartime
07:50 Who Led The Council
09:43 Edmund Fowle Home Life
13:09 Declaration of Independence Read Aloud
15:51 Treaty Negotiations
18:40 Forgotten Then Remembered
21:12 Planning The 250th
23:42 Friendship Still Binding
25:00 Symbols Of Liberty
26:18 Witch Trials Echoes
27:13 Hidden Shoe Magic
28:17 Visit And Support
29:26 Closing Thanks And Event
Links
- End Witch Hunts
- The Thing About Witch Hunts
- Salem Witch Trials History YouTube
- The Thing About Salem website