Paul Revere

For the American musical group, see Paul Revere & the Raiders. Paul Revere (baptized on December 22 1734 (old style)/January 2 1735 (new style) – May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. Because he was immortalized after his death for his role as a messenger in the battles of Lexington and Concord, Revere's name and his "midnight ride" are well-known in the United States as a patriotic symbol. In this time he coined the famous phrase "The British are coming!" as he repeated throughout the "midnight ride". In his lifetime, Revere was a prosperous and prominent Boston craftsman, who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. Revere later served as an officer in one of the most disastrous campaigns of the American Revolutionary War, a role for which he was later exonerated. After the war, he was early to recognize the potential for large-scale manufacturing of metal goods and is considered by some historians to be the prototype of the American industrialist.

Early years

Paul Revere was born on 1 January 1734. According to the records of the New Brick Congregational Church in Boston, he was baptized on 22 December 1734. This date is given in the "old style" Julian Calendar that was used in the British Empire until 1752. The date translates to 2 January 1735 in the "new style" Gregorian Calendar. Nevertheless, most sources give January 1 as Revere's birth date. It is unlikely that Revere was baptized on the day he was born, so his actual birth date would have probably been a few days earlier in late December 1734. An assumption that he was born the day before his baptism has perhaps led to the adoption of 1 January 1735 (new style) as his birth date.

Revere was of French descent. He was the oldest surviving son of Apollos Rivoire, a Huguenot refugee from Wallonia who had anglicized his name to Paul Revere. He had a meager schooling and, while being an apprentice to Mr. John Coney, learned the trade of a gold- and silversmith. In 1756, he was second lieutenant of artillery in the expedition against Crown Point, and for several months was stationed at Fort Edward in New York.

By his first wife, Sarah Orne (1736-1773), whom he married in 1754, Revere had seven daughters and a son. After Sarah's death, he married Rachel Walker (1745-1813) in 1773, and together they had five sons and three daughters.

He became a proficient copper engraver in the years before the war. As a close friend of Samuel Adams, he was involved in the earliest stages of the struggle for independence. He was an articulate exponent of republicanism, making numerous drawings that displayed British contempt for American rights. One of his best known tells the patriot story of the Boston Massacre. He was one of the Boston grand jurors who refused to serve in 1774 because Parliament had made the justices independent of the people for their salaries; was a leader in the Boston Tea Party; was one of the thirty North End mechanics who patrolled the streets to watch the movements of the British troops and Tories; and in December 1774 was sent to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to urge the seizure of military stores there, and induced the colonists to attack and capture Fort William and Mary — one of the first acts of military force in the war.

The Midnight ride

The role for which he is most remembered today was as a nighttime messenger before the battles of Lexington and Concord. His famous "Midnight Ride" occurred on the night of April 18–19, 1775, when he and William Dawes were sent by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride inland from Charlestown to warn the militias at Lexington and Concord of the approach of British army troops from Boston. Robert Newman and Captain John Pulling held the two lanterns in the Old North Church, indicating that the British soldiers were crossing the Charles River. Later, Dawes and Revere were joined by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who was just returning from a visit to Lexington. Instructed to make as little noise as possible on the route, Revere chose instead to alarm the houses along the route by shouting out a warning of the approaching troops. Revere probably did not shout the famous phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"); his warning was: "The regulars are out!"

He reached Lexington around midnight and brought news of the British advance to Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night at the Hancock-Clarke House. All three riders were captured by British troops in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to nearby Concord. Prescott and Dawes escaped, with Prescott able to reach Concord to deliver the warning. Revere was detained longer and had his horse confiscated. He walked back to Lexington and arrived in time to see the first shots of the battle the next day. The warning delivered by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops, who were harried by guerrilla fire along the road back to Boston.

Revere's role in the battle was not especially noted during his life. In 1860, over forty years after his death, the ride became the subject of "Paul Revere's Ride", a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem was one of the most well-known in American history and was memorized by generations of schoolchildren. Its famous opening lines are:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year

Longfellow took many liberties with the events of the evening, most especially giving credit to Revere for the collective achievements of the three riders. As a result, historians in the 20th century sometimes considered Revere's role in American history to have been exaggerated, becoming a national myth. Some historians have since stressed his importance, however, including David Hackett Fischer's book Paul Revere's Ride (1995), an important scholarly study of Revere's role in the opening of the Revolution. In fact, a man named Israel Bissel rode from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania. Revere only rode 19 miles across Massachusetts.

Revere's greatest contribution to the American Revolution was the alarm and messenger system that he designed and implemented before the battles of Lexington and Concord. He used his numerous contacts in eastern Massachusetts to devise a system for the rapid call up of the militias to oppose the British. Although several messengers rode longer and alerted more soldiers than Revere that night, they were part of the organization that Revere created and implemented in eastern New England. Some claim that Paul Revere became famous while Dawes and Prescott did not because Revere was better known and trusted by those who knew him. Therefore people acted on his words instead of ignoring the strangers waking them up after midnight. The army that assembled during the night of his famous ride would become the nucleus of the Continental Army.

Today, parts of the ride are posted with signs marked "Revere's Ride". The full ride used Main Street in Charlestown, Broadway and Main Street in Somerville, Main Street and High Street in Medford, to Arlington center, and Massachusetts Avenue the rest of the way (an old alignment through Arlington Heights, Massachusetts is called "Paul Revere Road").

More details may be found at Paul Revere's Ride.

War years

In 1775, Revere was sent by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to Philadelphia to study the working of the only powder mill in the colonies, and although he was allowed only to pass through the building, obtained sufficient information to enable him to set up a powder mill at Canton.

He was commissioned a Major of infantry in the Massachusetts militia in April 1776; was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of artillery in November; was stationed at Castle William, defending Boston harbor, and finally received command of this fort. He served in an expedition to Rhode Island in 1778, and in the following year participated in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition. After his return he was accused of having disobeyed the orders of the commanding officer, was tried by court-martial, and was acquitted.

Later years

After the war, he engaged in the manufacture of gold and silver ware. He was early to recognize the appeal of fine metal goods beyond the upper class to the growing middle class. As a foundryman, he recognized a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival that followed the war, and became one of the best-known metal casters of that instrument, working with sons Paul Jr. and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons, which cast the first bell made in Boston and produced over 100 in total. Additionally, he became a pioneer in the production in America of copper plating, covering the original wooden dome of the Massachusetts State House in copper in 1802, and of copper spikes for ships—most notably the USS Constitution. His business plans in the late 1780s were stymied by a shortage of an adequate money in circulation. His future plans rested on his entrepreneurial role as a manufacturer of cast iron, brass, and copper products. Alexander Hamilton's national policies regarding banks and industrialization exactly matched his dreams, and he became an ardent Federalist committed to building a robust economy and a powerful nation. In 1801, Revere founded copper and brass works in Rome, New York.

While he proved himself capable in the extreme as a worker of precious metals and his businesses brought he and his estate great profits in these years, it is significant to note that he was still a craftsman, and as such considered by some a second-class member of the gentry. His family was known to actually hide the Copeley portrait (seen at the top of the article) in later years, as it showed him working with his hands.

In 1795, as grandmaster of the Masonic fraternity, he laid the cornerstone of the new State House in Boston, and in this year also founded the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, becoming its first president.

He died in Boston on May 10, 1818, at about 83, his death tolled by bells that he himself had manufactured.

Paul Revere appears on the $5,000 Series EE Savings Bond issued by the United States Government. His likeness also appears on some labels of the popular beer Samuel Adams. The company he founded in 1801, continues as Revere Copper Products, Inc. with manufacturing divisions in Rome, New York, New Bedford, and Massachusetts.

References

David Hackett Fischer; Paul Revere's Ride Oxford University Press, 1994
Jayne E. Triber; A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere U of Massachusetts Press, 1998
LFO's Song "Summer Girls"

External links