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Paul Revere never shouted " The British are coming"?
- Thread starter TakedaShingen
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Joined Jan 2022
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Orion Nebula
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Revere started as a silver smith, but developed a manufacturing business, Revere Copper Company, which is still in existence as a private corporation. That is probably the main reason the poem mentioned him. He was much better known in Longfellow's time than Dawes or Prescott.
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Revere Copper made Revere Ware quality copper clad pots from 1939-2018. However, they mainly make and made copper for industrial and "defense" uses. They closed their originally Boston area plant about 15 years ago and have one location in Rome, NY. The company was long privately owned, but is now employee owned.
Samuel Prescott, the other rider, was a phyician and the other Prescott was an officer. I would assume that since the Bushes use it as a first and middle name, it is a prominent New England family.
Samuel Prescott, the other rider, was a phyician and the other Prescott was an officer. I would assume that since the Bushes use it as a first and middle name, it is a prominent New England family.
Joined Jan 2021
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Portugal
Eh, when it came to colonial societies on the (always very emotional) eve of emancipation, it was hardly ever that simple. If the inhabitants had been born on the territory, there's a good chance they'd consider themselves as "Americans" even if ethnically European.
Joined Jan 2015
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MD, USA
Sure, but wasn't one of their complaints about being treated as second-class *British* subjects? Going on about the "Rights of Englishmen", and all that? George Washington and his officers were still toasting the health of the king almost a year into the war. They were British.
Matthew
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California
If some colonists used the term "American" to describe themselves, they were in the minority and the term was by no means universal among the 2 million colonists. Of the 2 million British colonists about 15-20% were loyal to the crown, that's around 300.000-400,000 who still considered themselves British. On the eve of the declaration of independence the colonists were conflicted about breaking from their mother country. Pretty much all the founders viewed themselves as British even after gaining independence, and justified the declaration of independence as their God given right as Englishmen to rebel against the king. Even George Washington never used the term "American" or "America" in his inaugural address and in his farewell address. Instead he called it the United States or simply Union.
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Yes, but the idea of separateness was growing even if there was no consensus of what to call ourselves. Yes, I accept that Paul Revere would not have called the others 'British,' but 'regulars' is an awkward term that probably doesn't do justice to how people felt about them.
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California
Yes but wouldn't using the term "The regulars are coming" be the same as saying "The Army is coming?" What sounds awkward to us now may not have been in the 1700s.
Regulars, redcoats, lobsterbacks, army - they all imply that someone other than us is coming to get us, even if we can't yet come up with a name that describes 'us.' I guess the awkwardness isn't in 'Regulars.' It's in 'us.' Why are the regulars coming to get us? Why don't they like us? How are we different? If Revere knew who we were, he may have come up with a better word to describe our opponents. If 'Americans' was in use at the time, then calling the regulars "British' makes sense, but Revere didn't have that option so he was forced to improvise with 'Regulars.' And of course it's not just Revere who has this problem. It's everyone else in the Sons of Liberty and the rest of the movement that is coming to see violence as the only solution to the political crisis. What do we want? What do we call ourselves? - Those who want... Eventually the answer would be 'We want independence' so we call ourselves 'Americans,' but that was still in the future.
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Monmouth County, New Jersey
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Australia
The Wikipedia article casts a lot of doubt. I posted it because I vaguely recalled reading somewhere about a teenage .... who had done far more to spread the word that night than Revere, and a search found the article.
Joined Jul 2011
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From what I can see, he was not shouting anything, as that would get him arrested, but warned specific Patriots. He got arrested anyway and Prescott was the only one of the three who made it to Concord. Once the word got out, many others rode with the news.
The story is basically true though, even though Longfellow dramatized and completing changed the details.
Old North Church was the only Anglican Church in Boston. The others were Congregationalist. The men who placed the lanterns were bell ringers or whatever who had access to the church tower.
The story is basically true though, even though Longfellow dramatized and completing changed the details.
Old North Church was the only Anglican Church in Boston. The others were Congregationalist. The men who placed the lanterns were bell ringers or whatever who had access to the church tower.
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Orion Nebula
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Yes, and the 49-year-old commander of the whole Patriot force at Bunker Hill was obviously a different Prescott from Samuel Prescott, the 24-year-old physician who was one of the other riders. Obviously, a prominent family.
So were the British troops looking to arrest Johns Adams, who was later President?
Joined Oct 2015
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California
Has anyone seen the AMC series ‘Turn’ about the American revolution a few years back? It ran for 4 seasons from 2014 to 2017. I thought it was a well done series and imo pretty accurate on the psychology and motivations of the colonists as well as their complicated and nuanced relations with the mother country and he British army.
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