Paul Revere

 

Paul Revere

 
Paul Revere is known to many Americans through the writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While Longfellow does not hold strictly to historical facts, he does excite the reader with a moving tale, a nation's response to a call to arms. Revere was a member of the Boston Observers, and was among the actual leaders in the Boston Tea Party. With his friend William Dawes, he makes the trip to Lexington on horseback to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock that “the British are coming.”



Newspaper Reporter: How would you describe Paul Revere to someone who did not know him?

Paul Revere: I would answer that I am a man who likes working with his hands.

Reporter: That's a modest answer. Can you expand that a bit?

Revere: I have been a silversmith for as long as I could remember. I worked hard but it was joyful work. I liked the steam of hot medals and the smell of the furnaces. I made engravings which I could sell nicely. I designed and printed Continental currency. I did a lot of things over the years. I was sometimes ashamed of my rough hands when I had to shake the hand of a gentleman.

Reporter: How would you describe a gentleman?

Revere: Why it is someone who works with the mind like my friend John Adams. A lawyer and a doctor are gentlemen because of their studies at Harvard College. Their hands are smooth and clean; mine are rough and covered with callouses.

Reporter: Do you think gentlemen are better than you?

Revere: I don't think it's a question of better or worse. Gentlemen can't do what I do and I certainly can't do what they do.

Reporter: Your neighbors say that you are a very hardworking man, never idle.

Revere: And how can that be avoided with sixteen children to feed. Some sadly, by the will of God, died young.

Reporter: How was it that you were chosen to ride from Boston to Lexington on April 18, 1775?

Revere: Billy Dawes and me said we would do it. They told us we had to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock about the coming of the British who would certainly take them prisoners.

Reporter: But why you? Did you volunteer to go?

Revere: I don't remember; we were there and they needed good horsemen, so we went. Besides, I was the official message carrier and Dawes could ride like the wind. Dawes was assigned by Doctor Warren to take the land route out of Boston through the Boston Neck, leaving just before the military sealed off the town.

Reporter: You were caught though before you could get to Concord.

Revere: Yeah, I was arrested by the lobsters, we called 'em that 'cause that's how they looked in their red uniforms. They arrested me and took it all like a joke, laughing and drinking ale as they tied me up. But that didn't stop me. I did a lot of riding before the war came to an end.

Reporter: Now I know you don't like talking about it but did you take part in the dumping of that tea in the Boston harbor?

Revere: I was in the crowd of people watching as the Mohawk Indians used their tomahawks to crack open the crates before throwing them into the harbor.

Reporter: Why do you think the Indians wanted to do that?

Revere: I don't know but during the war with the French, they did worse things.. Maybe they knew how much we liked to drink tea and wanted to take away our pleasure.

Reporter: You know, Mr. Revere, many people I talked to say you were a great business man and that you were always ready to help the Masons with gifts of money.

Revere: I really have to run along now. My wife doesn't like me to be late for dinner.