Separating Man from Myth:

How Paul Revere's Role in the American Revolution

Has Been Seen Throughout the Past Century.

Albert Whittenberg

HIS 510

University of Illinois Springfield

December 8, 2003

 Paul Revere 2

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

The Problem with Myth 3

The Early Works 4

More Like Fiction 7

Modem Biographies 9

Other Works Relating to Mr. Revere 13

Conclusions 14

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~~~~~~---~~~~-- ~~~~----~--~-~~
 Paul Revere 3

Once several years ago when I was searching for a certain volume among the

lonely stacks in a local community college library, I came across a book with the unusual

title, I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not. My curiosity got the better of me, and

I started reading. The first paragraph starts with the year 1923. President Warren

Harding is not worried about Al Capone, the Ku Klux Klan or corruption in his own

government. He is worried about some people saying that Paul Revere never made his

ride and was, in fact, captured by the British. I The title of the book is actually the quote

that Harding made to the press about the whole situation. I would later check out the

book and read it in its entirety. It was filled with various lies that we have been telling

ourselves for years. The author Richard Shenkman has made a good living through a

number of these books, but I have him to thank for sparking my interest to investigate

Mr. Revere further.

The Problem with Myth

Thomas A. Bailey once wrote that "false historical beliefs are so essential to our

culture that if they did not exist, like Voltaire's God, they would have to be invented.,,2

Washington can cut down a cherry three, Abraham Lincoln can never tell a lie

(interesting feat for a lawyer) and Davy Crockett can kill a bear when he is three years

old. People surely do not believe these stories but somehow they are the ones that persist.

We forget what historical figures actually did and focus on the legend. Paul Revere is a

classic example. His ride was made famous by the poem by Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow. On April 5, 1860, Longfellow went up the tower of the Old North Church in

Boston and wrote "from this tower were hung the lanterns as a signal that the British

troops had left Boston for Concord". 3 He would then start work on his famous poem
 Paul Revere 4

which would later be published in the Atlantic Monthly and Tales ofa Wayside Inn. His

objective was not focusing on history but "written to impress northerners during the Civil

War of the necessity of fighting for liberty".4 In the poet's mind, it probably did not

matter that he put Revere "on the wrong side of the river and had him thunder into

Concord, which he failed to reach.,,5 The poem and the legend of the ride have, in

historian Alfred Young's words, "swallowed up the man.,,6

It is then up to the historian to set the matters straight. With so much focus

(research) being done on the more elite members of colonial society such as Washington

or Jefferson, it is important to look at Paul Revere since he represents more the common

man. More than just the famous rider, he was an artisan, a "son ofliberty", a freemason

and an example of someone going farther in American society than they ever would have

under British society.

The Early Works

Unlike many of the other Revolutionary personalities, there are fewer primary

sources regarding Paul Revere. Most of the documentation was business records or

official documents regarding his work as a silversmith. There are some letters such as his

commission to colonel and various other family letters that in the late 1800s were in the

procession of Paul's grandson John and family. Elbridge Henry Goss, a member of the

American Historical Association, the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the

Bostonian Society, was granted access to these documents and wrote the first full

biography of Paul Revere in 1891. This was a huge two volume set that carried Revere's

life from birth to death (with only one chapter dedicated to his famous ride). Perhaps
 Paul Revere 5

spurred by Longfellow's poem, the books had already reached their eighth edition by

1909.

In his first volume, Goss covers Revere's life up until his entry into the military.

He uses the various letters that John Revere granted him access to paint a picture of Paul

Revere, the man behind the midnight ride. The book is filled with illustrations of

Revere's engraving work and various bowls or cups he created from silver. Explanations

for each piece along with who the customer was are explained as well. Goss never

attempts to put words in Mr. Revere's mouth but uses the many correspondence that

survive to tell the story.

The midnight ride is, as mentioned above, covered in only one chapter, but Goss

uses both Longfellow's poem, Revere's own account of the ride and other sources to tell

the tale. He even includes a replica of Revere's account for readers to judge for

themselves. He explains everything in exhaustive detail including the many legends that

popped up from the events. An example is "Deacon John Larkin's best horse was rode to

its death by Paul Revere.'" This has been a tradition handed down from the deacon's

family for generations (the horse was alive when Revere returned it).

Elbridge Henry Goss is also to be commended for not stopping at only one

volume. Certainly he could have stopped there and most people would have been

satisfied to have a solid account of the midnight ride. Goss continued on in his second

volume which covered Revere's life from the Penobscot Expedition to his death. As with

the second volume, Goss uses primary sources, various illustrations, copies of letters and

portraits, and pictures of buildings in 1891 to tell Paul's story. Events that might have

been lost to most people of his day who just want the legends, Goss tells about Revere's
 Paul Revere 6

casting of his first bell for the New Brick Church, "it has hung on three conspicuous

churches, either in its original or enlarged form. It has summoned six generations of

worshippers to the sanctuary.',8 Goss ends his account not only with Revere's death but

also briefly lists his many children's biographical information. Between the two

volumes, it is almost 1,400 pages of using various letters and documents to tell Paul

Revere's life. Unusual for his time, Goss also supplies the reader with countless

footnotes to tell where he found his information. This was the first complete biography

of Paul Revere, and another so complete version has not been created to today.

Another biography of Paul Revere was published in 1930. Emerson Taylor's

work was titled simply Paul Revere. The author based his work on the "study of the

original letters, official documents, business records, and other Revere family papers

which throw light on the varied activities of this patriot, soldier, master-craftsman, and

great industrial pioneer.,,9 Unlike Goss, Taylor does take some liberties with his subject.

He accounts Revere's life in considerably fewer pages (237)10, but he also attempts to

make several guesses and assumptions. An example comes from this quote:

"Not to insist on a point unsupported by documentary evidence - for this, we

know, is anathema to your veracious historian, may one guess - merely guess­
that Revere may have derived from his forebears the seed of that love of liberty
which later, in the rich soil of the Revolution, was to bear such splendid fruit?"I)

If we forgive Taylor for guessing, it is also interesting that he is probably one of the first

to say that "this first ride of Paul Revere's to Lexington, unheralded and unsung, had a

greater importance, as things turned out, than the ride he was to make at midnight, two

days later.,,)2 Revere had rode to Lexington basically to tell Hancock and Adams of an

attempt to capture them by General Gage. This ride never seems to get mentioned much,
 Paul Revere 7

but who knows how things might have changed if two of the "founding fathers" had been

captured.

Taylor gives credit to Goss' work as well and uses some of his two volumes as

reference items in his biography of Revere. The footnotes in Taylor's book are not as

plentiful as Goss' works, but the reader has some means of tracking down Taylor's

research. With two solid biographies, you would assume that the following decades

would produce further and maybe greater research on Revere. With one exception in the

1940s, it did not happen. Most of the work looked more like fiction than anything else.

More Like Fiction

Several works about Paul Revere followed Longfellow's example more than Goss

or Taylor. The majority of these books were made by fiction writers or ones associated

more with children's literature. The four that are discussed are very simplistic in nature

with no footnotes or any means to know where the author got his or her information.

These four could be deemed patriotic pieces as all paint Paul Revere as an infallible hero

from the past.

The first actually came before Taylor. Walter A. Dyer, author of children works

like The Dogs ofBoytown and Ben the Battle Horse, wrote a biography of Paul Revere

called Sons ofLiberty: A Story ofthe Life and Times ofPaul Revere in 1920. It tells the

story of Revere from his ancestors coming to America, Paul's birth, the famous ride and

finally to his death. It seems to follow the facts reasonably well, but the characters in the

books sound like something out of bad theatre than real life. One quote is from Hancock

saying "the time has come to strike a blow for liberty" and "shall it be said that John

Hancock fled in that hour ofneed.,,13 There are countless examples of Revere using the
 Paul Revere 8

same type lofty tone in Dyer's work although Goss and Taylor seemed to have missed

Paul talking like this in any of his letters. The brief biography of Dyer in his book calls

him a "born story-teller" with thirteen books to his credit. Sons ofLiberty is the only

piece that is not pure fiction. Knowing this, it is probably not unusual that Dyer's writing

style starts to embellish the speeches of Revere, Hancock or Adams.

Another biography of Paul Revere was also published in 1930 (the same time as

Taylors). Belle Moses, who had already wrote biographies of Lewis Carroll and Charles

Dickens, completed Paul Revere: The Torch Bearer ofthe Revolution. Like Dyer, the

tone of the book is very light and patriotic. Paul Revere is filled with passionate speeches

and never sounds much like a real human being. Moses writes that "Paul Revere was a

true Son of Liberty. He believed the highest liberty came through independence and he

practiced it in his private, as well as his public life.,,14 It is wonderful to say something

like this but Moses then never backs the statement up. No proof is given that this

statement reflects the man's character. In the beginning, Moses dedicates this book to the

Boy Scouts of America. With each page, it becomes painfully clear who the author is

writing for. It is a shame that authors feel they need to sugarcoat history to appeal to

children.

Moving ahead, another biography of Revere was written with mainly children in

mind by Dorothy Canfield Fisher in 1950. Her book, Paul Revere and the Minute Men,

is shorter than the two mentioned above and covers Revere's life to the end ofthe

Revolutionary War. Fisher does not mention Longfellow and tries to stick to the facts at

hand (although she does alter the people's speech to sound more like the 1940s than the

1700s). She makes an interesting quote after her chapter on Revere's midnight ride:
 Paul Revere 9

"Perhaps here is as good a place as any other to remember that Paul Revere was
not a person in a storybook. He was a real man. One of the differences between a
book invention and a live-human being is this: The author who has made up a
character can end his story the minute it stops bein exciting. A real person goes
on living. Certainly Paul Revere went on living.,,1 f
The final book of these minor or children works is one actually written in 1929. It

is different than the first three in the fact that it seems to have been written more as a

tourist piece than anything else. Although it is not stated anywhere in the book, Charles

C. Farrington's Paul Revere and His Famous Ride sounds like an advertisement for the

many Revere tourist spots in Massachusetts. Revere's entire life is covered in less than

thirty pages while entire chapters are dedicated to "Revere's Route as it is Today",

"Revere's Old Home", "Footprints of Revere in Other Places", and "Christ Church (Old

North)".16 An example is Farrington talks about "outside of Boston there is the City of

Revere, named after him, and at the summit of Winter Hill, in Somerville, is Paul Revere

Park."l7 The book tells accurately the story of Paul Revere but adds nothing new to

research. The book's purpose seems to be more giving people various places to go if

they are near Boston.

With books like these, there would be seem to be little chance for more extensive

research on Paul Revere than what was already done with Goss. However three

historians have since changed that.

Modern Biographies

The first is by historical novelist Esther Forbes in 1942. With assistance from her

local historian mother, Harriette M. Forbes, produced a worthy addition of Paul Revere's

life called Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. Using members of the Revere family

(mainly great-grandchildren of Paul Revere), Forbers has access to Revere's many

 Paul Revere 10

writings as well as being granted permission to reproduce the famous John Singleton

Copley portrait of Paul Revere for the first time in a book. Both Forbes also worked with

Clarence S. Brigham who has studied Revere's engravings for over twenty-five years. IS

In a review of this book, historical writer Allen French writes that:

"this is a novelist's biography, but it is (thank heaven) not fictionized, nor yet
(more thanks) dramatized. But the historian's weighing of evidence, the giving of
reasons for decisions, the noting of sources, are mostly lacking. In a text of 464
pages, there are but fifty-four notes; and the reader must accept much without
question, or hunt up the sources themselves.,,19

Forbes develops her book at an interesting space dwelling as much time on Boston as she

does Revere. She may spend six to seven pages on the interesting custom of Guy Fawkes

Day (without even mentioning Revere) and then turn to the subject of Revere's horse.

She argues about the probable color. "Painters are apt to give Revere a white horse for

night scenes and a black horse for daytime. But the Yankee horse tended to sorrel and

bay.,,2o She gets this information by looking at the newspapers of the times where horses

are being sold or were lost.

Forbes spends a great deal of time with Samuel Adams, John Adams, John

Hancock and the royal governors. French credits Forbes by saying "under her hand old

Boston becomes a personality.,,21 Sometimes, Revere goes to the background. An

example is the Boston Massacre. She spends a great deal of time (and pages) relating the

entire event before she gets around to Revere's engravings of the event.

While some problems, Forbes has created a lively account of Paul Revere while

not falling into the same traps as some of the authors I have already mentioned. Her

work seems a compliment to Goss and Taylor instead of a step back.

 Paul Revere 11

The next big works on Paul Revere are in the 1990s. David Hackett Fisher wrote

Paul Revere's Ride in 1994. This work is more than a biography of Paul Revere. Fisher

calls his book an "inquiry that studies the coming of the American Revolution as a series

of contingent happenings, shaped by the choices of individual actors within the context of

large cultural processes.,,22 One of these actors is Paul Revere who "during the pivotal

period from the Fall of 1774 to the Spring of 1775, had an uncanny genius for being at

the center of events.'.23 Keele University professor Colin Bonwick calls Revere "an

essential connection among the many radical groups in Boston and one among several

riders who raised the alarm throughout Middlesex County.,,24

Fisher also spends a great deal of time dealing with the last royal governor of

Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage. Fisher calls him a "tragic figure, a good and

decent man who was undone by his virtues. ,,25 The advice he gave British ministers

helped guide certain events. Without them, there "well have been no Coercive Acts, no

midnight ride, and no fighting at Lexington and Concord. ,,26

In another review, E. Wayne Carp of Pacific Lutheran University wrote that

Fisher "spends nearly two-thirds of the book authenticating folktales and attacking straw

men while reconstructing Paul Revere's early life and famous ride.'.27 Carp even pokes

at Fisher by saying that "no subject is too trivial for Fisher's immense erudition. He

informs readers about everything from the size, breed, and name of Revere's horse to the

particular roads he and Brown Betty traveled on April 19-19, 1775.,,28 No matter how

trivial the matter, Fisher felt Revere's ride was one of those turning events and "was not a

solitary act. Many people in Boston helped him on his way - so many that Paul Revere's
 Paul Revere 12

ride was truly a collective effort. He would be very much surprised by his modem image

as the lone rider of the Revolution.,,29

Another work on Revere was published in 1998. Jayne Triber's book, A True

Republican: The Life ofPaul Revere, is an attempt by the author to try and understand

why Paul Revere joined into and fought for the philosophies of the American Revolution.

Her thesis was to answer the following three questions: "what attracted Paul Revere to

the Revolutionary cause, how Revere interpreted the republican principles of the

Revolution, or how those principles shaped his life after April 19, 1775.,,30

She focuses a great deal of time on Revere's work as a goldsmith, silversmith and

dentist. Using various public records and archival material, she paints a picture of how

the Revere family was doing year after year by the items that Revere made and sold. She

speculates how events like the Stamp Act affected the Revere family due to the few items

he sold and because he rented out a portion of his shop for extra money (his choice to add

a further career of making false teeth was because the silversmith business had declined).

Triber remarks that the Stamp Act meant "enslavement" and "hard-working frugal men

would now be taxed to support a set of corrupt, luxury-loving placemen and

pensioners.,,3l Even though no specific records exist to why Paul Revere joined the

Revolutionary cause, the struggle to support his growing family could certainly be a

factor.

It is a shame that Triber never answers her final two questions. Her focus

becomes less and less on Revere and more on various leaders of the Revolution. Revere

folds to the background as Benjamin Franklin, James Otis, John and Sam Adams take

center page throughout her book. Much of the early and middle portions of the book are
 Paul Revere 13

an almost general overview of the American Revolution with Revere thrown in here and

there. Whether this is due to a lack of sources on Revere doings during this time or

. Triber trying to establish the surroundings that Revere found himself in, we are not told.

Triber's works goes well with Paul Revere's Ride as two sides of the same

person. One is how Paul Revere was in the "right place at the right time" and what

brought to that place. Joined with Forbes account, the three books show a fairly complete

story of the man beyond the legend.

Other Works Relating to Mr. Revere

Paul Revere has been researched in other works as well besides biographies. One

such book was Philip Davidson's Propaganda and the American Revolution.

The use of propaganda materials was not uncommon during the American

Revolution, and Davidson tires to show it as not an evil process but "a systematic attempt

by an interested individual (or individuals) to control the attitudes of groups of

individuals through the use of suggestion.,,32 Paul Revere used various engravings of

events such as the Boston Massacre to promote the Sons of Liberty's causes. Davidson

mentioned that "Paul Revere's numerous engravings constituted the first important use of

the political cartoon. Paul Revere did more for the cause of independence with his stylUS

than by any midnight ride.,,33 This is certainly not a popular opinion about Paul Revere

but certainly an interesting aspect of the man.

Arthur B. Tourtellot's Lexington and Concord uses the famous midnight ride as

one of the points leading up to the battles of Lexington and Concord. Tourtellot not only

details Paul Revere but other riders as well. He describes the saving of Hancock and

Adams as well as the famous midnight ride. The difference between this account and the
 Paul Revere 14

biographies mentioned before is in the writing. Tourtellot is looking only at the events

and not the man. He talks about other minutemen and also what the British officers were

doing/thinking as well. At the end of the chapter on the midnight riders, Tourtellot even

laments "by the time the battle launching the war of the American Revolution began, he

(Revere) was so occupied in lugging a trunk up Bedford Road from Lexington Common

that he did not witness the event.,,34

Professor ofjournalism, A. J. Langguth, uses Paul Revere sparingly in his book,

Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. He briefly mentions him

several times but the overall focus of the book is a general summary of the American

Revolution. With such a broad topic, it is hard to include much about anyone so it is

surprising that Langguth mentions Paul's family coming to America, how Revere started

doing false teeth work when demand for silver goods lessened, and how he modeled his

appearance after Samuel Adams. The author details the events of the midnight ride

including the twenty-three year old shoemaker, William Dawes, who was also one of the

riders. He even got an earlier start than Revere. 35

If these three books show anything, it is that any work on the American

Revolution and especially Massachusetts, Paul Revere is going to pop up somewhere. As

mentioned above, he had a great ability to be in the right place at the right time.

Conclusions

The American Revolution is a popular topic for historians. The so-called

"founding fathers" continue to be a popular topic for historians. The common man,

during these times, is a different matter. Paul Revere was not ordinary in many ways,

and certainly his legendary ride has overshadowed other ways that he was a
 Paul Revere 15

revolutionary. Perhaps Longfellow ruined any serious research of Paul Revere, but a few

have tried. A few have succeeded. Hopefully more research will be done like those of

Forbes, Triber and Fisher. It seems America needs it's myths but it is equally refreshing

to actually meet the man.

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 Paul Revere 16

Endnotes

lRichard Shenkman, I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not, (Harper

Collins Publishers, 1991), 1.

2 Thomas A. Bailey, "The Mythmakers of American History," The Journal of

American History, 59 (June 1968): 5.

3Jayne E. Triber, A True Republican: The Life ofPaul Revere, (Boston:

University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), 1.

4Richard Shenkman, I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not, (Harper

Collins Publishers, 1991), 10.

5Thomas A. Bailey, "The Mythmakers of American History," The Journal of

American History, 59 (June 1968): 6.

6Alfred F. Young, "Paul Revere - Artisan, Businessman and Patriot: The Man
Behind the Myth," The Journal ofAmerican History 76 (Decemebr 1989): 852.

7Elbridge H. Goss, The Life ofColonel Paul Revere, Volume One, (Boston:
Howard W. Spurr, 1891),205.

8Elbridge H. Goss, The Life ofColonel Paul Revere, Volume Two, (Boston:
Howard W. Spurr, 1891),240.

9Emerson Taylor, Paul Revere, (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1930), 1.

IOIbid., 237.

II Ibid., 11.

12Ibid, 136.

13Walter A. Dyer, Sons ofLiberty, (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1920),
341.

14Belle Moses, Paul Revere: The Torch Bearer ofthe Revolution, (New York: D.
Appleton-Century Company, 1936),32.

15Dorothy C. Fisher, Paul Revere and the Minute Men, (New York: Random
House, 1950), 165.

16Charles C. Farrington, Paul Revere and His Famous Ride. (The Bedford Print
Shop, 1929), 2.
 Paul Revere 17

17Ibid.,89

18Esther Forbes, Paul Revere & The World He Lived In, (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1942), 2.

French, "Review of Paul Revere and The World He Lived In," The New
19Allen
England Quarterly 15 (September 1942): 521.

20Esther Forbes, Paul Revere & The World He Lived In, (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1942), 192.

21Allen French, "Review of Paul Revere and The World He Lived In," The New
England Quarterly 15 (September 1942): 522.

22David H. Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, (Oxford University Press, 1994),9.

23Ibid.

24Colin Bonwick, "Review of Paul Revere's Ride," The Journal ofAmerican

History 81 (March 1995): 1683.

25David H. Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, (Oxford University Press, 1994), 16.

26Ibid.

27E. Wayne Carp, "Review of Paul Revere's Ride," The American Historical
Review 100 (October 1995): 1292.

28Ibid.

2~avid H. Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, (Oxford University Press, 1994), 98.

30Jayne E. Triber, A True Republican: The Life ofPaul Revere, (Boston:

University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), 1.

31Ibid., 42.

32Philip Davidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution: 1763-1783, (The

University of North Carolina Press, 1941), 8.

33Ibid., 224.

34Arthur B. Tourtellot, Lexington and Concord: The Beginning ofthe War ofthe
American Revolution, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1959), 117.
 Paul Revere 18

35 A. J. Langguth, The Men Who Started the American Revolution, (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1988), 231.
 Paul Revere 19

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History 55 (June 1968): 5-21.

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Davidson, Philip. Propaganda and the American Revolution: 1763-1783. The University
of North Carolina Press, 1941.

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Spurr, 1891.

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Langguth, A. 1. Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. New York:
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Myth." The Journal ofAmerican History 76 (Decemebr 1989): 852-857.