The Liberty Pole Capping

By Rich Grady

I attended The Liberty Pole Capping in Bedford, Massachusetts, on April 12th. It was a first for me, but if I knew what I had been missing, I would have made a better effort to witness it before now. Here’s a description of it on the Bedford Minutemen’s website:

“Annually, on a Saturday in early April, the Bedford Minuteman Company and Minuteman Companies from the area converge on Willson Park in Bedford to commemorate the spirit and courage of the patriots who sparked the American Revolution. The Liberty Pole Capping and Raising is a reenactment of a practice in Colonial America signifying dissatisfaction with varied rulings and conduct of the English government of that date. It is meant to commemorate the spirit of liberty exemplified by Bedfordians and other colonials in the early phases of the War for Independence.” (https://bedfordminutemen.org/bedford-minuteman-events/liberty-pole-capping-informati on/)

The event had a familiar irreverent feel to it that seems to substantiate the New England persona. It was held on the morning of the day we had a surprising amount of snow and then freezing rain. Nonetheless, the spirits of local Minutemen and townspeople were high during both the anticipation and the consummation of the act of pole capping. We watched as Bedford Minutemen carried a pole across Willson Park, and planted it in a base to secure it as they raised it upright. Once vertical, an agile young Minuteman wearing a red liberty cap shinnied his way to the top and put his cap on top of the pole – hence the term “pole capping.”

The tradition of capping a liberty pole in Bedford goes back 60 years, but the liberty cap itself goes back to ancient Phrygia, which was part of Anatolia (modern day Turkey).

The liberty cap’s origin can be traced to the Phrygian cap, a soft brimless cone-shaped hat worn by the people of Phrygia as well as in other parts of Anatolia, including Troy. Trojan warriors are depicted on pieces of ancient art wearing the Phrygian cap. It became associated with the very similar pileus cap, which was given to freed slaves in ancient Rome at the moment of manumission.

The cap became a symbol of freedom and liberty during both the French and American Revolutions. In France, it was called the “bonnet rouge” and was worn by revolutionaries. In America, it was known as the “liberty cap” and used for pole capping as a form of protest against British rule. It appears on France’s Marianne and the US’s Columbia, in both cases as a symbol of liberty.

The American John Trumbull wrote a popular poem, McFingal, about a row between patriots and loyalists over a liberty pole. After the patriots raised the pole, McFingal – a loyalist – tried to cut it down, but instead was raised-up the pole by the patriots. Here’s an excerpt:

“Then from the pole’s sublimest top
The active crew let down the rope,
At once its other end in haste bind,
And make it fast upon his waistband;
Till like the earth, as stretch’d on tenter,
He hung self-balanced on his center.”

(From Canto III of McFingal by John Trumbull)

It was an inspiring day at The Liberty Pole Capping in Bedford – you should think about going next year. It’s a tradition that I didn’t even realize we had – my bad! I leave you with a short poem of my sentiments from the experience. The title, “We Will Not Bow,” was a catchphrase in the ceremony’s invocation by the Chaplain of the Bedford Minutemen.

We Will Not Bow

No bejeweled crown, no tyrant’s rod,
Shall sway the sons of freemen’s sod;
We plant our pole with steady hand,
And declare the freedom of this land.

Let Phrygia’s cap the summit wear,
A scarlet beacon to all who care
For the freedom grown in furrowed field,
In honest toil and tempered steel.

In Trumbull’s verse, the tale was told,
Of patriots brave, of deeds so bold;
A pole they raised – freedom’s tower;
No kingly tyranny could deny their power.

For it is the habit of a king to undo
The people’s rights – you know who;
But here we stand, the time is now;
We stand together, we will not bow.

Huzzah!