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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere When Parliament sent the Army against American colonists, people still calling themselves ‘British’ had to decide very quickly what that meant to them.
1775
King George III 1760-1820
Music: Muzio Clementi

By Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

This portrait of Paul Revere was painted in 1813, when he was in his late seventies, and thirty-eight years after his memorable ride. The war which began next morning ended in 1783, with London’s recognition of the United States of America. Fortunately, those in the new American Government who favoured a tie-up with France (at that time an absolute monarchy, but on the brink of bloody revolution and then Bonaparte’s grab for European empire) were ultimately outvoted by those favouring a resumption of good terms with London, for which we have George Washington to think in particular.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Paul Revere, a Massachusetts silversmith and professional courier, was in the city of Concord when news came that Parliament had ordered the Army to move against its own people. With no time to lose, he was despatched on an errand which proved to be the spark that ignited a revolution.

FOLLOWING Samuel Adams’s ‘Boston Tea Party’ protest in 1773,* London quartered some three thousand soldiers from the Regular army all around the port, with orders to destroy the rebels’ stockpile of weapons at Concord, and arrest Adams and John Hancock, then in Lexington.

Paul Revere was hastily despatched on a midnight ride to Lexington, to warn Adams and Hancock, and to urge the people along his route, most of whom still thought of themselves as ‘British’, to decide what that really meant to them, before the Regulars came.

After he was captured by a patrol, he even warned the soldiers of the dangers they faced. But though they released him, they took no heed.

At dawn on April 19, 1775, even as Revere was smuggling Adams and Hancock out of the town, shots were fired on Lexington Common, and later at North Bridge in Concord; but by this time thousands had made up their minds that being ‘British’ meant being free.

The revolution had begun.

See The Boston Tea Party.

Suggested Music

Symphony No. 1 in C Major

4: Finale: Allegro vivace

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Played by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Francesco d’Avalos.

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