By Ken Bridges, Texas History Minute
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 12 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. Revere’s father eventually owned a respected silversmith shop, and as a child, Paul Revere began learning the trade.
He became a renowned silversmith in his own right, noted for his precision and elegant designs.
Revere’s father died in 1754, and Revere, then 20 years old, struggled to keep the business afloat. In 1756, as the French and Indian War erupted, he volunteered for service in the Massachusetts militia. He served for a year before returning 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 financially. When the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, trade suffered and Revere’s financial situation worsened. Revere even learned and briefly practiced dentistry to earn additional income.
The Stamp Act, a tax on all printed materials, shocked the colonists. They had no representation in Parliament and no voice in the process. By tradition, taxation had always been a local matter. Revere soon joined Samuel Adams and others in 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 The British repealed the Stamp Act within a year, but tensions between British officials and locals continued to simmer across Boston.
In March 1770, an argument between locals and British troops at a sentry post exploded into violence. British troops shot and killed five Bostonians in what became known as the Boston Massacre, an event that horrified much of the British Empire. Revere soon produced an engraving of the incident that depicted a British officer appearing to order troops to fire into the crowd while Redcoats appeared to smile as they did so. The image was quickly circulated throughout the colonies.
His wife died in 1773, and he soon married Rachel Walker, with whom he would have another eight children. That same year, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which gave a massive tax break to the East India Co., a company with close ties to senior British politicians. Because British tea was already being boycotted in the colonies, Revere and others organized protests that prevented British ships in Boston from unloading tea. What role Revere played in the Boston Tea Party, during which tea was dumped into the harbor, was never fully made clear.
In response to the Boston Tea Party, which caused nearly $3 million in damages in today’s dollars, the British increased their military presence and punished the city. 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 planned to seize 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 local residents of the approaching British troops. They were soon joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott. Late in the night, the three were stopped by a British patrol. Revere was captured and questioned before being released. But the warning had already spread.
The next morning, April 19, Minutemen confronted the British at Lexington, where British troops opened fire. Other militia units secured the weapons and gunpowder in Concord and repelled the British, marking the opening shots of the American Revolution.
Revere’s ride was memorialized in 1861 in the famous poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a fellow Massachusetts resident.
In the months afterward, Revere stayed away from Boston. In late 1775, he established a gunpowder factory in Massachusetts that became critical to the war effort.
After the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, Revere returned to the city and volunteered for service. He was appointed a major in April and spent most of his time serving in the artillery. His primary assignment was at Castle William, overseeing Boston Harbor to prevent the British fleet from returning.
In 1778, Revere served in an expedition with French troops to retake Newport, Rhode Island, from the British. When storms kept the French fleet away, the mission was halted. The following year, the British attempted to establish a base in Penobscot Bay north of Boston. Revere and other Massachusetts units were sent to drive the British out, but the effort quickly collapsed because of poor coordination, lack of American naval support and British reinforcements.
Revere faced criticism for delays in his actions. In 1782, after requesting a full court-martial, he was fully exonerated.
After the war, he concentrated on business. With the help of his son Joseph, he founded Revere Copper Co., a company now based in New York that is marking 225 years in business.
Revere remained active in local politics and the Freemasons for the rest of his life. He died quietly at his home in 1818 at age 83. In the decades since, many schools, streets and cities have been named in his honor. To this day, he remains admired for his legendary ride on that spring night in 1775.