Paul Revere is a well known patriot from the time of the American Revolution.
He was involved in the Boston Tea Party, but is perhaps best known for his horseback ride of April 18, 1775, warning of the coming British troops.
Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 1, 1735. His father, Apollos De Revoire was a Huguenot refugee, and after moving to America, changed the family name to Revere. Apollos was a silversmith, and he taught his son this trade. Paul became one of America’s greatest artists in silver, but it was as a patriot that Paul Revere became an American folk hero.
In 1773, Revere joined fifty other patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians and together they threw 342 chests of tea from ships into Boston Harbour. This was the Boston Tea Party and was a protest against Parliamentary taxation without representation.
Revere served for many years with Boston’s Committee of Safety. It was Revere who devised the plan to place lanterns in Boston’s Old North Church steeple as a warning for when British troops were approaching, one lantern if by land and two if by sea.
Revere’s most famous ride for the Boston Committee of Safety was to warn of the coming of British troops, who were looking in particular for John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two of the key revolutionary leaders. Revere reached Lexington and was able to warn Hancock and Adams in time to flee. It was because of Revere’s warning that the Minutemen were prepared on Lexington Green for the famous battle which signalled the beginning of the American Revolution.
During the War, Revere became an industrialist and built a powder mill to supply colonial arms. He also spent some time as Lieutenant Colonel in command of the defence of Boston Harbour at Castle William. He was also involved in the Penobscot Expedition, which was a terrible disaster and for which Revere was dismissed from the Militia. Revere later received a Court- Martial however, which acquited him of any wrongdoing.
After the war, Revere remained as an industrialist and set up a rolling mill for the production of sheet copper. It was Revere who was responsible for the sheathing of many U.S. Ships, including the U.S. Constitution, as well as the dome of the Massachusetts Statehouse.
Revere Copper and Brass Inc. grew into a large national corporation before Paul Revere died at the age of 83, on May 10, 1818.
Bibliography:
“Revere, Paul.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 24 Mar. 2007
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