As we begin the commemoration of America’s 250th birthday, a special event will take place at Historic Hanna’s Town on Saturday May 17, 2025, to honor the 250th anniversary of the Hanna’s Town Resolves, a bold precursor to the Declaration of Independence.

News of the events at Lexington & Concord on April 19, 1775, reached the frontier of Western Pennsylvania in mid-May. The residents of Westmoreland County gathered at Hanna’s Town on May 16, 1775, to discuss how they should react to these events. They “Resolved unanimously, that there is no reason to doubt that the same system of tyranny and oppression will (should it meet with success in Massachusetts Bay) be extended to every other part of America: It is therefore become the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who has any public virtue or love for his country, or any bowels for posterity, by every means which God has put in his power, to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes … animated with the love of liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and defend our just rights (which, with sorrow, we have seen of late wantonly violated in many instances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupted Parliament) and transmit them to our posterity, for purpose which we do agree and associate together.”

The Hanna’s Town Resolves were printed in a newspaper in Philadelphia, but the original document has not been found. We don’t know who signed it, and we can only imagine the discussion that resulted in this compromise document in which they declared their willingness to fight to protect their rights but stopped short of declaring independence from Great Britain. This May 17, reenactors will give a plausible recreation of the discussion based on our knowledge of the culture and motivations revealed in other writings of the 18th century residents of Westmoreland County. Special living history demonstrations and displays will also be featured that day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.