Paul Revere by Owen

If somebody said “Paul Revere” the first thing most people think of is a guy in a blue coat riding a horse and yelling, “The British are Coming! The British are coming!” After Reading this book, you will not be part of the most people group. Revere did not just ride from Boston to Lexington, he did many MANY more thing to inspire the Revolutionary War. So, “Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere!”

Revere’s Childhood
For starters, Paul Revere had difficult childhood. Revere was born near January 1, 1735. There is no official birth record of Revere. January 1, 1735 is Revere’s baptism. His father, Apollos Rivoire, immigrated from France in 1715 at age 13 by himself! Revere’s family was descended of French Protestant or Huguenot descent. His mother's name was Deborah Hitchbourn. Revere was the youngest child in his family. As a boy, Revere was a bell ringer at Old North Church in Boston. Revere’s father was a Goldsmith so Revere became a silversmith apprentice while he was growing up. When Revere was 19, his dad died, so Revere had to take care of the entire family. To do this he acquired many jobs. One included being an officer in the French and Indian War. Although Revere’s childhood was tough, Revere still did amazing things in his life.

When Revere was an Adult
Then Revere became an adult, and now owned his father’s silversmith shop, after he died in 1754, even though he wasn’t a master silversmith until 1765. The reason why Revere wasn’t a master silversmith until 1765 is because being a silversmith is hard work and requires a lot of practice. He married Sarah Orne in August 1757. On May 3, 1773 Sarah Orne died. He didn’t stay unmarried for long. That fall Revere married Rachel Walker. He had 16 children total and 8 of them died before adulthood. To keep up with his family, Revere had many jobs, not just being a silversmith. He was an entrepreneur, industrialist, a businessperson, a spy, and a cartoonist or engraver.

Revere’s Work against England
Revere had a grudge against England because King George III was putting taxes on everything, so that people didn’t have enough money to buy his silversmith products. He also didn’t want to buy the supplies he needed for his shop and his family because they costed so much. So, he joined three main clubs: Sons of Liberty, Long Room Club, and North End Caucus. All of them were against the idea of one man (King George III) ruling over thousands of people from the other side of the ocean and putting huge taxes on everything By joining these clubs Revere got to work with famous Revolutionary War figures like Sam Adams and John Hancock. Revere’s roles in these clubs was being a messenger and a spy. The reason Revere got these jobs, was because Revere liked to ride horses, and he was quite good at it too. Revere also made cartoons to make people aware of the happenings in Boston, -such as the Boston massacre- and make them realize what the British were doing to the Colonists.


On December 16, 1773, Revere took part in the Boston Tea Party. This wasn’t the normal tea party, this was sneaking onto british trading ships and dumping every single crate of tea into the sea. The whole point of the Boston tea Party was so Colonists would not buy the tea, making the taxes on tea pointless. This was the first step the colonists took toward the revolutionary war.

About Revere’s Ride
Most people think of Revere Revere as the guy who rode from Boston to Lexington yelling that the british are coming. But, that isn’t a complete explanation of his ride. In 1775 King George III ordered British troops to take supplies from the colonists and arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. These orders were supposed to be secret, but colonist spies knew about. The sons of liberty made a plan for Revere to ride his horse to lexington to warn all the colonists that the british were coming. This ride was carefully planned out. For example, Robert Newman would place one lantern in the Old North Church if the british were coming by land, and two if by sea. Most people don’t know that Revere was stopped on ride by the British. They took his horse, but decided that one prisoner was less important than arresting Adams and Hancock. Adams and Hancock both ended up escaping, thanks to William Dawes, who made it to Lexington.

Revere’s Later Life
Of course Revere had a life after his ride, but he didn’t do any more acts in the Revolutionary War. Revere did a lot of other great things such as establishing the Nation’s first successful sheet-copper mill, being an organizer of Boston’s First successful Fire Insurance Company, serving as a Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge, being a Suffolk County Coroner, and being the first president of the Boston Board of health.

If Paul Revere had not gone on his ride, our entire nation would be different. Would would be part of Great Britain, not the United States we have today. So think of the things that Revere Revere did so that we could have a free country (and all of those companies, so that we could have stuff made by ourselves, not other countries).