In 1773, a group of prominent citizens in the Western Massachusetts town of Sheffield gathered at the home of a farmer named John Ashley to draft what would become known as the Sheffield Resolves. The document, which argued against British tyranny and in defense of individual rights, began with the words, “Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent”—perhaps informing the text of the Declaration of Independence three years later. But the fiery assertions laid out in Ashley’s upstairs study also had an impact on another form…
