Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes

 

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town tonight,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm, 

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

…..Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

His friend was Robert Newman and Paul Revere was in fact not on the opposite shore when Newman climbed the North Church tower to hang the lanterns.  Revere was still in Boston and he had so quickly hastened off to await the signal that he forgot his spurs and some scraps of clothing to muffle the oars as he made his way across the Charles River.  Nor did Revere make it to “every Middlesex village and farm;” he was captured by the British outside of Lexington. 

 Paul Revere---accomplished silversmith, coppersmith and engraver; early industrialist and Yankee innovator; husband to Sara Orne and then Rachel Walker, father of sixteen; Bostonian, Mason and a Son of Liberty---is portrayed admiringly, colorfully and with a devotion to historical accuracy in this wonderful book by Esther Forbes.

Paul Revere began life with a baptismal date of January 1, 1735.  He was named after his father Apollos Rivoire, a French Huguenot immigrant who landed in Boston as a young man and was apprenticed to John Coney a silversmith.  Apollos soon changed his name to something the British colonists could more easily handle and Paul Revere he was. 

Paul Revere, fils, grew up in a typical colonial household, went to North Writing School (a writing school as opposed to a Latin or grammar school which would have prepared him for scholarly life), worked in his father’s shop, briefly went off to fight in the French and Indian Wars and became head of household at age 19 when his father died.  Revere grew to be a man of integrity, common sense, pluck and not a small amount of ingenuity.

Well before his midnight ride Revere, perhaps unlike most of his fellow craftsmen, was included in various patriot clubs of Boston who were debating and fomenting rebellion.  His inclusion was a bit unusual as he was neither intellectual nor a gentleman of the educated class.  Forbes explains: “Paul was admitted to their society because they wished the sympathy of the large artisan class with whom he was immensely popular….” (p 56)  Paul Revere was also a do-er, a man with an even temperament and a steady head. 

His famous midnight ride was one of several such journeys Revere had already made.  His first was in November 1773 preceding the Tea Party when Revere rode to nearby seaports to advise that the British ships laden with their trunks of tea might discharge their cargo.  After the Tea Party Revere made, according to Forbes, four trips to Philadelphia.  She writes: “If one estimates the mileage from Boston to Philadelphia as three hundred and fifty at that time, his rate was about sixty-three miles a day…..”  (p. 206)  Not bad!  Revere made another famous ride when he took the Suffolk Resolves written by his good friend Dr. Joseph Warren to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. (Revere named one of his younger sons after Dr. Warren who died in the Battle of Bunker Hill.)

As we follow Revere’s life, our author brings us along through the Stamp Act rebellion, The Boston Massacre (to which Revere’s contribution was printing the famous engraving that erroneously portrayed what happened), The Boston Tea Party (Revere was most certainly a participant though no records exist), his famous midnight ride and the Battles of Lexington and Concord (Revere never actually fought in either battle).  We follow the First Continental Congress as it convenes in Philadelphia and the second Congress that appoints Washington as Commander of the Continental Army.  We read of Washington’s arrival in Boston after the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Forbes does not fight the Revolution for us but skips ahead as Boston picks up the pieces after it was under siege and plundered by the British.  We catch up with Revere as he returns to post-War life as a Boston citizen. 

Revere’s later life is as action-packed as were his early years.  Revere tries the military life, merchant life and applies for a position as customs director.  But his talents lie elsewhere and it is to his shop that he returns.  He designed a silver roller and began working in iron and bronze.  He schooled himself in bell castings, and, most notably developed a mill for rolling copper sheeting which would line the domes of colonial buildings (including New York’s City Hall) and the underside of ships, most famously the U.S.S. Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides.’ He collaborated with Robert Fulton on copper boilers for steamships. The Paul Revere Heritage Site in Canton, MA is home to his recently-refurbished copper mill. Revere Copper Products Co. in Rome, New York operates today though Revere Ware is no longer made. If you happen to own any Revere Ware pots and pans with the copper bottom, you own a bit of history.

Esther Forbes was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this book which was published in 1942.  She credits her mother, a historian, with doing much of the research and document-hunting that forms the basis for her book. The book flows easily for all its history; Forbes has been very accurately described as a “novelist who writes like a historian and a historian who writes like a novelist.”  While telling the story of Revere’s life, Forbes intersperses chapters on teeth and tea, dentistry, political clubs, the smallpox scourge in Boston and Revere’s silver work.  She gives profiles and insights into many of the prominent figures of the pre-revolutionary period in Boston. There is a good map of old Boston in the front of the book but not nearly enough supporting maps and pictures, though it is possible that I didn’t have the best edition of Forbes' book.   

For some additional information on Paul Revere, follow this link to the American Antiquarian Society to read about a 2019-20 exhibit called Reflections on Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere.  The first 28 minutes of Panel 1 with Robert Martello, a professor at Olin College of Engineering, are especially good and cover Revere’s work as a craftsman and inventor during his later life.

Paul Revere died at the age of 83.  He outlived his second wife, Rachel, and was survived by five children and 50 grandchildren.  Let’s hope we continue to have Americans and patriots like this man-of-action, Paul Revere, brought alive in Forbes’ excellent book which I hope you will read.