Commemoration and the War on Monuments on the Eve and During The American War of Independence

Introduction. This article touches upon the problems of memorial culture in early America, during the period when the foundations of American identity were being laid. This topic has not been studied in either Russian or American historiography. Meanwhile, it is closely related to the problems of the “memory wars” in the modern United States. Methods and materials. The source base of the article consists of the materials of the 18th-century press, records of the Old Colony Club in Massachusetts, and documents of personal origin. The methodology of memory studies is the theoretical basis of the research. Analysis. Two main types of memorialization are considered: the one linking historical legends to natural sites (Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, Charter Oak in Connecticut) and the one creating monuments to political figures (William Pitt the Elder, King George III). Both fit into the context of the emergence of American national identity. Attention is paid to the “wars on monuments” in New York in 1776. Results. Commemorative practices in America before the Declaration of Independence are closely related to the ideological atmosphere of that period. Some of the “places of memory” of 1765–1775 refer to the mythologized past of the founding of the colonies; others are designed to represent imperial loyalty and, at the same time, the success of Americans in the struggle for their rights. In 1776, the ideological space was reformatted. The revolutionaries rejected the former monarchical symbols; the British, in turn, tried to destroy the symbols of the revolutionary movement.