Paul Revere, American Patriot

Paul Revere ( January 1, 1735 – May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He was glorified after his death for his role as a messenger in the battles of Lexington and Concord, and Revere’s name and his “midnight ride” on April 18th, 1775 are well-known in the United States as a patriotic symbol. In his lifetime, Revere was a prosperous and prominent Boston craftsman, who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military.

Revere later served as an officer in the Penobscot Expedition, one of the most disastrous campaigns of the American Revolutionary War, a role for which he was later exonerated. After the war, he was early to recognize the potential for large-scale manufacturing of metal.

Revere’s political involvement arose through his connections with members of local organizations and his business patrons. As a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, he was friendly with activists like James Otis and Dr. Joseph Warren. In the year before the Revolution, Revere gathered intelligence information by “watching the movements of British Soldiers”, as he wrote in an account of his ride. He was a courier for the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, riding express to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He also spread the word of the Boston Tea Party to New York and Philadelphia, and rode to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to warn of an imminent landing of British troops.