One daring ride in the middle of the night made him a legend. But the life of Paul Revere was much more than that one moment in April 1775.
He was a noted businessman who often put the needs of the community before his own.
Paul Revere was born in Boston on New Year’s Day 1735, the third of twelve children. His father had been born in France into a Protestant family in a nation that was officially Roman Catholic and offered no religious freedom. He fled France on his own at the age of 13 and eventually ended up in Boston where he was apprenticed to a silversmith. His father came to own a respected silversmith shop. As a child, Paul Revere began learning the trade.
He became a renowned silversmith in his own right, noted for his precision and elegance of design.
Revere’s father died in 1754, and Revere, now at age 20, struggled to keep his business afloat. In 1756 as the French and Indian War erupted, he volunteered for service in the Massachusetts militia. He served for a year and returned home. In 1757, he married Sarah Orne, with whom he had eight children and joined the local Masonic lodge.
After the French and Indian War, he continued to struggle. When the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, it crushed trade and made Revere’s financial situation worse. Revere actually learned and briefly practiced dentistry as a way of making extra income.
The Stamp Act, a tax on all printed materials, had shocked the colonists. They had no representation in Parliament and had no voice in the process.
By tradition, taxation had always been a local matter. He soon joined Samuel Adams and others into the Sons of Liberty, a secretive organization determined to protest the Stamp Act and British actions in the colonies.
The Sons of Liberty organized protests, boycotts, and even attacks on British troops and officials in Boston.
The British repealed the Stamp Act within a year, but tensions between British officials and locals simmered across Boston.
In March 1770, an argument between locals and British troops at a sentry house exploded into violence. British troops shot and killed five Bostonians in the Boston Massacre, an event that horrified the entire British Empire.
Revere soon produced an engraving of the incident, one showing a British officer appearing to give the order to fire into the crowd and the Redcoats almost seeming to smile as they did it.
The image was quickly circulated across the colonies.
His wife died in 1773, and he married Rachel Walker soon afterward, with whom he would have another eight children.
Parliament passed the Tea Act that year, which gave a massive tax break to the East India Co., one with special connections to senior British politicians.
As British tea was already being boycotted in the colonies, Revere and others organized protests that prevented British ships in Boston from unloading their tea.
What role Revere played in the Boston Tea Party that followed, where that same tea was dumped into the harbor, was never made clear.
In response to the Boston Tea Party, which caused nearly $3 million in damages (in 2026 dollars), the British decided to punish the entire city and increase the military presence.
By 1774, the new military governor of Massachusetts, Gen. Thomas Gage, had effectively placed Boston under martial law and closed the port.
Colonists soon formed the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in response and organized the Committee of Public Safety to speak out against the British and organize the people.
On the night of April 18, 1775, Revere and others received word that the British were going to seize the weapons and gunpowder at the colonial supply depot in Concord, about 20 miles west of Boston.
Revere and William Dawes quickly rode out of the city to warn the Minutemen and residents of the approach of the British.
They were soon joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott. Late in the night, the three were stopped by a British patrol.
Revere was captured. After questioning, he was released. But the word was already out and spreading rapidly.
The next morning, April 19, Minutemen confronted the British at Lexington, where the British opened fire on them.
Other militia units had secured the weapons and gunpowder and Concord and repelled the British, the opening shots of the American Revolution.
Revere’s ride was memorialized in 1861 with the famous poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a famed poet and fellow Massachusetts resident.
In the months afterward, he hid out away from Boston. In late 1775, Revere began a gunpowder factory in Massachusetts which became critical for the war effort in Massachusetts.
After the recapture of Boston in March 1776, Revere returned to the city and volunteered for service.
He was appointed as a major in April and spent most of his time in the artillery.
His primary assignment was at Castle William overseeing Boston Harbor to prevent the British fleet from returning to challenge the Americans again.
In 1778, Revere served in an expedition with French troops to retake nearby Newport, Rhode Island, from the British. When the French fleet was kept away by storms, the expedition was halted.
The next year, the British attempted to establish a base in Penobscot Bay, north of Boston.
Revere and other Massachusetts units were sent to force the British out of the area, but the effort quickly fell apart because of poor coordination, lack of American naval support, and reinforcements from the British.
Revere faced sharp criticisms for delays in his actions. In 1782, after requesting a full court martial, Revere was fully exonerated.
He concentrated on his business after the war. With the help of his son Joseph, he founded Revere Copper Company, a company now based in New York and marking 225 years in business.
Revere remained active in local politics and in the Freemasons for the rest of his days. He died quietly at his home in 1818 at age 83.
In the decades since, many schools, streets, and cities were named in his honor. To this day, he is still admired for his legendary ride on that spring night in 1775.
Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at drkenbridges@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Ken Bridges explores history leading to Paul Revere’s famous ride
Reporting by By Ken Bridges, special for the Globe News / Amarillo Globe-News
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