Concord is a Colonial town of 17,000 people that has a rich cultural and political history. It is the location of the "shot heard round the world." Local farmers called minutemen for their ability to be ready for battle in a minute's notice fought with British soldiers here on April 19, 1775, beginning the drive for American Independence. It was
also ground zero for the philosophical and literary movement known as "transcendentalism." Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau penned some of their most famous works here and Amos Bronson Alcott established his school of philosophy.