Everybody knows the story of Paul Revere’s ride – or thinks they do: the lonely rider, galloping through a town, shouting “The Redcoats Are Coming!”
In the broad scheme of the Revolution, Revere has been reduced to a bit part, his importance diminished by comments such as, “He didn’t even finish the ride, Samuel Prescott is the real hero,” or “there were lots of riders, even a 16-year-old girl.” Or, as my 9th grade history teacher summarized, “The only reason we’ve heard of Paul Revere is that Longfellow couldn’t think of a word that rhymed with Dawes.”
In fact, Revere was a pivotal figure in the approach of the Revolution. He was a leading Boston goldsmith, silversmith, and engraver. But he was also a leading propagandist and organizer.
In the late 1760s and 1770s, the resistance movement in Boston was decentralized and non-hierarchical. Nobody was in charge. Instead, there were various organizations with different leaders, representing different groups and neighborhoods: merchants, the “gentlemen” of society, waterfront gangs and seamen, tradesmen, laborers, etc. Revere moved comfortably between groups and was an important catalyst.
His work as a propagandist created the public image of the “Boston Massacre:” On March 5, 1770, culminating a day and night of running battles between Boston mobs and the occupying Redcoats, a group of soldiers opened fire and killed five Americans.
The confrontation was not spontaneous in any way. It resulted from a fight several days earlier. Both British soldiers and mob were stirred up, looking for a fight. The particular incident leading to the massacre started when the mob confronted a single soldier; he called for help and more were summoned by both sides. Many in the mob were throwing “snowballs” (rocks) at the Redcoats.
But colonial propaganda turned it into an unprovoked “brutal massacre of innocent civilians.” Paul Revere’s engraving was especially effective; it showed massed, organized troops firing into a small group of cowering, bourgeois citizens in coats and wigs. In fact, the crowd was very aggressive and the five killed were a typical waterfront mob: an escaped Native American/African American slave, a sailor, a rope maker, an Irish immigrant, and a young apprentice.
After the propaganda value had been achieved, activists recognized “the mob’’ endangered middle-class support for the growing resistance. Colonial leaders went to extraordinary lengths to ensure a fair trial for the accused soldiers. Revere collected evidence on their behalf and John Adams defended them; all were acquitted. But from the British point of view, the damage had been done.
As the resistance continued to grow, Boston took the lead in establishing committees and networks to communicate with the other colonies. In the first of many rides, Revere was sent to New York and Philadelphia with a message justifying the colonists’ violent resistance. He later carried the “Suffolk Resolves” (a series of resolutions declaring British punitive actions to be unconstitutional and calling for Massachusetts to form their own government and prepare to fight) to the First Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia; the Congress adopted the Resolves.
Starting September 1, 1774, General Thomas Gage, the British commander in Boston, staged a series of raids to confiscate powder and arms the colonists were storing for self-defense. The idea was that these raids would be prepared in secrecy and executed quickly so that the Redcoats would be back in their barracks (and the arms safely stored) before the local militias had time to react. The first raid worked perfectly, to the outrage of the colonists. Revere led an effort to form a committee for “watching the movements of the British soldiers and gaining every intelligence of the movements of the Tories.”
The second raid was a complete failure; Revere arrived in time to call out militia, which had secured the arsenal long before the Redcoats arrived.
In the spring of 1775, a ship arrived from England with the reinforcement General Gage had requested – and orders to the effect of “OK, you have your army; now do something.” Under the watchful eyes of Revere’s riders, the Redcoats began studying possible objectives and local roads. By the time campaigning season arrived, Gage had fixed on Concord – reported as a storage site of militia arms – via the Lexington road. As always, the plan was: plan secretly, move quickly, accomplish the mission and get back to Boston before the militias can mobilize. Paul Revere’s job was to make sure they didn’t accomplish any of those objectives.
