What is the message in chapter 1 of April Morning

The story begins on April 18th, 1775 at the onset of the American Revolution. In the first chapter of April Morning, we are introduced to the Cooper family and, more specifically, to Adam Cooper, a 15-year-old boy. Adam goes out to the well to fetch some water, but he has a dark premonition. He says a prayer over the well to banish these dark thoughts and feelings of impending doom. 
Throughout the first chapter, we see a sort of "coming of age" scenario begin to play out. Adam is annoyed at his younger brother, Levi, who threatens to tell their father about Adam's recitation of the spell. Adam can be characterized as the quintessential rebellious youth, going again his family's wishes and beliefs. Here we see that Adam is defiant in comparison to his brother: Adam is chastised for reciting spells and he challenges his Granny's—and his other schoolmates'—belief in God.  Adam longs to be taken seriously as a man, and he is angry at the fact that his father, Moses, criticizes him for his beliefs and ideas and disregards his view points by claiming that he is too young and not mature enough to reason as a man does. 
Adam's bitterness toward his father can be seen clearly, and he manifests these bitter feelings into the idea that his father hates him, even after it is explained by his mother and Granny that his father is just headstrong, which is something the two have in common. 
By the end of the chapter, we are able to see the clear contempt that Adam has for his father, paving the way for a father-son conflict to unfold in the coming pages. 
In addition, we learn in this chapter that Moses Cooper is part of a group of men who will be drafting their arguments against British rule. Adam's premonition of impending doom acts as a type of foreshadowing for the events that are about to come. 

The first chapter of April Morning describes the tensions within one colonial family on the eve of the American Revolution. It is the afternoon of April 18th, 1775 and young Adam Cooper is depicted as a rebellious youth, distrustful of religious authority as well as paternal discipline. Adams father, while outwardly pious, doesn't hesitate to express his displeasure with God over what he views as insufficient rain for the family's crops. Adam's father, Moses Cooper, points out that although his son has physically grown to manhood, his emotional growth has not yet reached the point where Adam is ready for the independence of manhood. 
Young Adam is denied the opportunity to participate in the interaction of men due to these shortcomings as perceived by his father. Adam equates his father's low opinion to personal hatred of his son, despite Adam being reassured by his grandmother that Moses is the sort to find fault in all things, including God, as was seen in his prayer.
By the end of the first chapter Adam's tendency to rebel is evident, although his rebellion is to establish his equality as a man with his father. The first chapter establishes the strong conflict between father and son against the building tension between the colonial family and their masters. The creation of tension between father and son personalizes the coming conflict and draws the reader into the colonial family at a personal level, rather than the Revolution as an historical event.