The Truth About Paul Revere's Ride

Summary

American History Hit: The Truth About Paul Revere's Ride

Episode Release Date: April 17, 2025

Introduction

In this compelling episode of American History Hit, host Don Wildman delves deep into the legendary tale of Paul Revere's midnight ride, uncovering the truths behind the myth. Joined by Michael Haddam, a historian of the American Revolution and author of The Memory of '76: The Revolution in American History, they explore the real events, the man behind the legend, and the enduring legacy of Revere's ride in American historical memory.

Historical Context

The year is 1775, a tumultuous time in North America marked by British imperial attempts to suppress colonial unrest. Don Wildman sets the stage, highlighting the broader global context with the Industrial Revolution in England, Mozart’s early musical achievements in Vienna, and Captain James Cook’s explorations adding Australia and New Zealand to the British Empire. However, in the American colonies, a smallpox epidemic ravages populations, exacerbating tensions and fueling desires for rebellion against British rule.

The Real Paul Revere

Michael Haddam provides an insightful background on Paul Revere, painting him as a multifaceted individual far beyond the simplistic image presented in popular culture. Born in 1735, Revere was a successful silversmith, engraver, and political cartoonist. He hailed from a diverse Boston family with both French and English roots, embodying the multicultural fabric of the American colonies. Revere’s active participation in the French and Indian War and his subsequent rise as a prominent artisan and revolutionary figure illustrate his deep involvement in colonial resistance.

"Revere comes from a family in Boston that is sort of half French and half English... He in some ways is a sort of prototypical 18th-century colonist." [06:12]

Paul Revere’s Contributions Beyond the Midnight Ride

Revere was not just the rider immortalized by poetry; he was a key member of the Sons of Liberty and played a significant role in the intelligence network monitoring British troop movements. His infamous engraving of the Boston Massacre served as potent revolutionary propaganda, galvanizing colonial resistance.

"He belongs to a group called the North End Caucus... they were serving as a sort of constant eye on the British army." [09:32]

The Midnight Ride: Myth vs. Reality

The narrative then shifts to the fateful night of April 18, 1775. Contrary to the poetic portrayal, Revere’s ride was part of a well-coordinated intelligence effort. He was not acting alone but was part of a broader network prepared to mobilize militias in anticipation of British actions.

"The primary purpose of the ride is... the intelligence that that is received by Joseph Warren is that the mission that is about to occur is sort of twofold." [19:25]

During his ride, Revere was intercepted by British patrols but managed to evade capture, alerting key colonial leaders like John Hancock and Samuel Adams. His companion, William Dawes, played a lesser role, unable to match Revere’s effectiveness in spreading the alarm.

The Longfellow Poem and Its Impact

A significant portion of the episode explores how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem transformed Revere’s ride into a national symbol. Longfellow, connected to Revolutionary history through his family, crafted a narrative that emphasized heroism and collective action, which resonated deeply during the Civil War era.

"The poem itself really is a sort of allegory... it's an early example of the effect that visiting historical sites can have on people." [32:19]

Haddam discusses the poem’s role in shaping American historical memory, likening it to an epic hit song that embeds itself in the national consciousness, often overshadowing the complex realities of historical events.

Legacy and Historical Memory

The conversation delves into the concept of historical memory, examining how Revere’s image has been sanitized and celebrated in ways that sometimes distort the truth. Haddam argues that while Revere was a significant figure, the poem elevated him to legendary status, often diminishing the contributions of others like Samuel Adams.

"It's really only after the poem that Paul Revere sort of becomes part of the broadest national memory of the Revolution." [40:09]

The discussion also touches on the broader implications of how historical narratives are constructed and remembered, highlighting the tension between celebrating the past and striving for progress.

Conclusion

Don Wildman and Michael Haddam conclude by reflecting on the enduring legacy of Paul Revere’s ride and its portrayal in American culture. They emphasize the importance of critically examining historical narratives and recognizing the efforts of individuals who played pivotal roles beyond the simplified stories taught in schools.

"Historical memory is a term I learned not too long ago, which is a fascinating part of this... how we honor their past in a very celebratory and rather non-critical manner." [43:47]

As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, this episode invites listeners to reconsider well-known historical events and appreciate the nuanced realities behind the myths.

Notable Quotes

• "Revere was part of the Sons of Liberty... a real radical revolutionary." – Don Wildman [11:03]
• "The poem itself really is a sort of allegory... Brown was in some sense playing a similar role to that of Paul Revere." – Michael Haddam [38:57]
• "Historical memory... defining the broad structure of our conflicts over the memory of the revolution basically ever since." – Michael Haddam [43:47]

Final Thoughts

This episode offers a rich, engaging exploration of Paul Revere's midnight ride, blending historical facts with an analysis of its mythologization. By dissecting both the real and the poetic narratives, Don Wildman and Michael Haddam provide listeners with a deeper understanding of how history is remembered and celebrated in American culture.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

It's the 18th of April 1775, the night before the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the night before the shot heard round the world in Boston, the black bulk of a British man of war swings round its moorings in the bay, its masts and spars outlined against the moon, while on the shore noises can be heard behind the walls of the barracks. British regulars are up to something, and the people of Boston, those good sons of liberty, are onto them. A horse takes off from the northern shore, galloping through the night to steal a march. When the soldiers arrive in Lexington as the sun begins to rise, they will find a surprise waiting for them. This midnight ride is the stuff of poetry. A hurry of hoofs in a village street, a shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark and beneath from the pebbles in passing, a spark struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet, that was all. And yet through the gloom and the light, the fate of a nation was riding that night, and the spark struck out by that steed in his flight kindled the land into flame with its heat. Saddled on the back of that horse, riding his way into legends and our history books, was none other than Paul Revere.

[Don Wildman]

Welcome to American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman. Great to have you here. The year is 1775. In England, the Industrial Revolution has begun to rumble. Adam Smith is writing his economic treatise, the wealth of nations, while James Watt redesigns the steam engine. Over in Vienna, an astonishing 19 year old genius named Mozart has already cranked out his first 30 symphonies. King George III sees his British Empire expanding into the Pacific. Captain James Cook is lauded for adding Australia and New Zealand to the colonized jewels. However, here in North America there is terrible unrest and not just the revolutionary kind. A smallpox epidemic has taken hold that will last for seven years, killing upwards of 130,000 colonists and native peoples. It's salt in the wound for those unhappy Americans tilting towards a rebellion the British authorities are determined to crush. In these fateful days, a man and his horse will make history of legendary proportions. Happened at the outbreak of the war in the wee hours of a Boston night. It is the story of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Who was Paul Revere and what was his real role in the rebellion? And why did the story of his determined gallop, forgotten for more than a century after it happened, suddenly take hold in the American imagination when the nation stood on the brink of another terrible trial? Our guest and guide today is Michael Haddam, historian of the American Revolution and author of the memory of 76 the revolution in American History, published by Yale University in 2024. Welcome, sir. Welcome, Michael. Hi.

[Michael Haddam]

Thank you, Don. I'm glad to be here.

[Don Wildman]

I feel like I should speak in iambic pentameter whenever I speak of Paul Revere. Longfellow's poem was the first I ever learned as a child in grade school. And that was the point, wasn't it? It was a heroic tale told in a joyful way.

[Michael Haddam]

That's really funny. I mean, that's part of its long lasting legacy, right. Is how quickly it transitioned into liturgy for school children in the United States.

[Don Wildman]

It was part of my composition book in I think it was second or third grade and you had to copy whatever poem appealed to you. And of course, the midnight ride of Paul Revere was great.

[Michael Haddam]

I mean, a lot of ways it's kind of up there with the Gettysburg Address. Right. In terms of things that American school children have certainly throughout the 20th century had to put their efforts towards memorizing.

[Don Wildman]

Exactly. And this conversation, to be Clear is about dissecting how real this event was as opposed to its sort of legendary myth and how it played really in the. In the strategy of those early days. It's a. Setting the table for the battles of Lexington and Concord, of course, which we cover in a previous episode of this series. Invite you to listen to that. We also do another episode on Sam Adams, who Paul Revere is very much confused with in the modern days. But he was so much a part of what was happening in New England at that time. So much of the early revolutionary movement. It seems like a crime that he's most remembered for a horse ride. Let's talk about the real Paul Revere. Where does he come from? What's his place in the world when he's an early one?

[Michael Haddam]

Revere comes from a family in Boston that is sort of half French and half English. The English side of his family goes way back in the history of Massachusetts. And so he in some ways is a sort of prototypical 18th century colonist. Right. The colonies were a diverse place in the 18th century in a way that I think that many people today don't really fully appreciate. And Revere sort of represents that in his background a bit.

[Don Wildman]

That's interesting. You know, that's a conversation I've really never had in depth. But the fact is, I mean, it's always talked about with New Amsterdam, of course, with the Dutch and their embrace of immigration and all the different kinds of people that were found there. But that was true throughout the colonies, wasn't it?

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the middle colonies, the so called middle colonies, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, typically get the majority of the lion's share of the diversity in early America and in the 18th century, but really all throughout the colonies, maybe a little less in the Carolinas and you know, as you go further south, but certainly throughout the Northeast, there's a great amount of diversity.

[Don Wildman]

It's the theme of America really is.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, well, you know, I mean, for decades French Huguenots had been coming to the colonies and that's the French half Revere's background. But also, you know, lots of immigration surges in the early 18th century from the German Palatinates and then of course the German settlers who come into Pennsylvania. There's lots of Dutch in New York, obviously in New Jersey. So much more diverse than people seem to remember.

[Don Wildman]

Revere was one of 12 kids, remarkable in and of itself. The father is a silversmith and he gets simple schooling. He goes on and serves in the French Indian War. I'm crossing lots of territory here. He's one of those, like George Washington and so many others who served faithfully in that war. In the 1750s, he returns to Boston and starts his own silversmithing business, becomes a respected artisan, successful businessman. He does a lot more than make pictures. He's. Yeah, yeah. He's an engraver and political cartoonist. How old is he when politics enters the picture for him?

[Michael Haddam]

He's born in 1735, so he's already 30 years old by the time that the sort of imperial crisis, as we tend to think of it in retrospect, begins with, say, the Stamp Act. By the time of the midnight ride, he's about 40 years old. Right. So he's not a young guy, But I think a few people who fought in the Seven Years War were young guys still by the time of the. When the conflict with Britain was coming to a head. But I think it does give you a sense that he had been around for a long time. He had been prominent on the political scene, Certainly maybe not right from 1765, but, of course, he's the one who does the famous engraving of the Boston Massacre, the controversial bloody massacre engraving, which then spreads throughout the colonies and sort of raises awareness, but also concern. It's one of the most masterful pieces of propaganda of the revolutionary era, that woodcut engraving.

[Don Wildman]

He belongs to a group called the North End Caucus. A lot of that neighborhood. I've done a lot up there in television world, and it had so much to do with the tunnels and the smuggling and all the sort of underworld activities that were happening up there. I guess he was a part of that.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah. And that's kind of the beginning, really, of what was one of his main roles in sort of what we might think of as revolutionary Boston. As a careful observer, let's say. Right. Eventually, he would go on to manage this sort of loose group of mechanics, fellow mechanics, and Mechanics is an 18th century term for somebody who worked with their hands. So basically an artisan. That group of mechanics who sort of famously met at the Green Dragon Tavern, you know, in the early 1770s, mid-1770s, they basically took it upon themselves to serve as constant observers of what the British army was doing in Boston. Of course, the city had been occupied by the British army since 1768 by anywhere from three to 4,000 British troops. And Boston in the early 1770s is a relatively small town. We call it a city, but it's, you know, like New York City. It has under 20,000 residents, you know, so the equivalent of a modern small town, really.

[Don Wildman]

Yeah.

[Michael Haddam]

So you can imagine, you know, having that many soldiers coming, the impact that that would have. And, of course, there were lots of conflicts between the townspeople and the soldiers. And as the conflict sort of heated up with Britain, especially after the Coercive Acts, after the Boston Tea Party and the coercive acts from Britain, which effectively shut down the harbor of Boston, shut down the Massachusetts colonial government, and basically shut down the town meetings.

[Don Wildman]

Sure.

[Michael Haddam]

So it's really after that that the efforts of Revere and his group of mechanics serving as a sort of constant eye on the British army and sending that information back to the revolutionary committees was a really crucial role.

[Don Wildman]

Yeah. He was part of the Sons of Liberty eventually, and also takes part in the Tea Party, all that sort of thing. He's a real radical revolutionary, I would say. Yeah. And ends up doing these morning rides as part of this communications network, first in New Hampshire to warn of the British seizing munitions. He's part of this whole committee, and the ride doesn't come out of nowhere. In other words, it's a big part of his life doing this sort of thing.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, he was. You know, we talk about the midnight ride. He made many rides. Revere did, as you mentioned, you know, In December of 1774, he rides up to Portsmouth in New Hampshire, where there was a British fort, Fort William and Mary, which was basically held by six rather infirm British troops, and that was it. And there was a sense that the. This is late 1774. And so, you know, the Coercive acts have already been gone into effect, and already by the end of the year of 74, the people all over Massachusetts are expecting something from Gage, from General Gage and the British armies. They made incursions into what we would think of as the countryside. And there had been a successful seizure of munitions just northwest outside the city. And this was going to be another attempt at that. They were going to. Gage was going to send troops up to New Hampshire to basically secure the munitions that were at this. In this rather sort of tenuous situation at Fort William and Mary. And Revere rides up there to warn the Whigs about what's happening, and eventually, you know, a couple of hundred militiamen essentially assault the fort and. And seize. Seize the gunpowder. And, you know, if you think about it, that's preceding Lexington and Concord by three or four months.

[Holly Fry]

So.

[Don Wildman]

Right.

[Michael Haddam]

It's really one of the earliest overt acts of armed rebellion by the colonists.

[Don Wildman]

Yeah.

[Michael Haddam]

And Reveres at the heart of that.

[Don Wildman]

These early revolutionary events are so fabulized now. They've just become so much a sort of movie scene in all of our minds. And they really were very dangerous days. You know, you were dealing with a really determined effort on part of the British to snuff this out. And these marches on these small communities to find these munitions depots basically were somewhat regular. But, you know, that was really what the British were up to as far as figuring out a way to stop this before it starts.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, really since the fall of 74, you might say that the countryside was sort of was basically on a war footing. Towns were stocking up on munitions, they were storing munitions. Their militias were in regular training. You know, we have this sort of mythologized notion of what happened at Lexington and Concord is that the minute men showed up, Right. And they. And they were just ordinary farmers with no military experience who showed up and fought for their liberties. Right. But that really does them a grave sort of disservice because, you know, they had spent months preparing a good number of the militia, had some experience in the Seven Years War as well, you know, and. And. And so that the countryside had really been on this sort of war footing for months leading up to the events in April.

[Don Wildman]

There was a whole intelligence network. There were whole. That's what was going on with the Sons of Liberty. They were basically communicating to each other what was happening in the countryside via their. Their network.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

And this leads to the big ride, which we're explaining, wasn't necessarily any different at the time than any of these other rides that he was doing. It was just the fact that they were going to a nearby place and they had developed this militia response at this point out there in the countryside. So that's going to lead to the skirmish that becomes so famous. So the day is April 18, 1775. Let's walk through the steps, both in the fable and in reality, and you tell me where the two overlap correctly. The chronology is he's going to ride that night. Why is it that night in particular?

[Michael Haddam]

Well, I mean, they had been on alarm for more than a week, really sort of expecting some kind of movement or incursion from the British. Boston is, like I said, it's a small town, and the British army there is going to muster 700 troops and have to bring them over to the mainland and then, you know, and prepare for a march. Those preparations are not going to go unnoticed in the town, not just because of Revere and his network of mechanics who are constantly on the watch. But they're not the only ones. You know, most Boston Whigs are people who were even just, you know, sympathetic to the Whig cause. Also were constantly watching what the British army was doing. So it was really hard for them to do anything in secret. And some movements to prepare for the eventual raid on Concord began about a week in advance. And so there was. The alarm was already raised. And Revere made a previous ride out to Lexington about a week before April 8th. Right. So he rides out there thinking that, you know, that the attack was imminent, but of course, it was still going to be about another week and a half.

[Don Wildman]

Had they decided to fight back, and was this a strategic decision on their part, or was this never meant to be more than a. A show of force?

[Michael Haddam]

You mean by the militia?

[Don Wildman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Haddam]

I mean, it wasn't the plan necessarily to engage with the British army. Right. I mean, Captain Parker, who leads the militia at Lexington, famously orders his 60 militiamen on the green not to fire unless fired upon. He says, don't molest the troops, let them pass by. Those orders are repeatedly given throughout the whole early morning and day of the 19th. So it seems pretty clear that there was no. There wasn't an intention on the part of the militia themselves to, say, start a war. Right. But also it is the case, you know, that we'd had these number of alarms, the Portsmouth alarm, the Salem alarm. So there was a heightened intensity on the part of the people in the countryside and who were growing increasingly frustrated under the yoke of the coercive acts. And so while they didn't go out there to start a war, they weren't going out there at that point necessarily to avoid one at all costs either. There's a great animosity between what the British soldiers would call the country people.

[Don Wildman]

Yeah.

[Michael Haddam]

Of these towns and the regulars. I mean, you know, there's so much animosity that had been built up over the previous seven years, but then especially just in the previous, you know, six months to a year, that it's really, in some sense, is sort of powder keg waiting to explode.

[Don Wildman]

I'll be back with more American history after this short break.

[Holly Fry]

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[Don Wildman]

It's another issue. But it's worth pointing out that Boston understood themselves to be very autonomous place.

[Michael Haddam]

Absolutely.

[Don Wildman]

They'd been allowed this status in the British Empire to do things as they wish to do. And so all those taxes and all the acts inflicted upon them are a violation of that in their minds. And so that's where a lot of this stuff boils up from and reveres one of those who resents them a great deal. So it's fair to say that the ride is not an act of war. It's not part of that decision and strategy at all.

[Michael Haddam]

No, I mean, the primary purpose of the ride is, you know, the intelligence that that is received by Joseph Warren is that the mission that is about to occur is sort of twofold. And one is the British army had gotten word that John Hancock and Samuel Adams are hiding out in Lexington. And so they were going to. Part of the plan was to seize them, and then the other part was to seize this large store of gunpowder that was supposedly in Concord. Right. So it's this sort of twofold mission.

[Don Wildman]

Sure. Now we're at this big moment when two lanterns are involved in this. Revere has rode himself across the Charleston harbor. He's awaiting the signal which will come from the steeple of the North Den Church, which is really tall in those days. You really would see it from these.

[Michael Haddam]

It's the tallest in the city.

[Don Wildman]

Yeah. And even today, if you go up there, I have been there. It's quite a perspective over everything. It involves this man named Joseph Warren. How does he figure into this plan?

[Michael Haddam]

I mean, Warren was a prominent Whig in Boston, well known man in the community and really one of the key leaders of the Whig movement in Boston. And Warren is the guy who a lot of the information that was gathered in the city by Revere and his mechanics and others, he's the one who would typically get that kind of information and pass it along to the committees. But in the case of April 18, is that Warren gets information about the impending mission by the British and exactly what it's about. And it long was a question of who was this informant that gave him this information. And, you know, there seems to be some real circumstantial evidence, at least, that it was General Gage's wife that passed along the information about the impending mission. She was a American colonist by birth. She was from New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had married in the late 1750s, when he was in the. In the colonies for the Seven Years War. And she came from a really prominent family in New Jersey with ties to all of the. The most elite landowning families in New York. And she had a real sympathy for her fellow colonists, you know, and he noted that she would often had a lot of sort of high talk about the liberty of her. What she called her fellow countrymen. And part of the circumstantial evidence, really, is that, I mean, we have accounts from some British officers who strongly suspected her, who had been suspicious of her the whole time, really, but who strongly suspected her of passing along the information about the mission. And then it turns out, you know, that a few days after the whole thing was over, he put her on a ship back to England. He stayed on for about another year. And then the reports are that they remained estranged during that time. So there seems some real circumstantial evidence that she was involved.

[Don Wildman]

Wow. So Warren is not the man who hangs these lanterns.

[Michael Haddam]

He's the.

[Don Wildman]

The sexton of the church. Robert Newman, the vestryman. John Pulling, I understand, who hang those lanterns, according to the intelligence that Warren has received.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

At which point we really begin the ride.

[Michael Haddam]

Right.

[Don Wildman]

What is the importance of William Dawes, though? He's. He's the other one who's going by land, I suppose.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, he's the other. He is the other writer. If we think about the significance of Dawes, in retrospect, what he did was not really necessarily as significant as what Revere did, because it kind of turns out that he was not quite as good an alarmist as Paul Revere was. And that part of that is that Revere was very practiced. So as Revere is riding through the countryside, you know, he's going to the homes that he knows of, you know, local leaders in those communities, and sort of using these. These sort of local institutions to then spread the word. Whereas Dawes was not as informed or necessarily as diligent about that kind of thing. And so most of the alarm is spread between the two of them really comes from Revere.

[Don Wildman]

Interesting. In the telling of this tale, poetically, it's, the British are coming. The British are coming. Of course, that's not the case because he wouldn't be saying that because he himself was a faithful Britishman at that point. What was he doing as he rode on?

[Michael Haddam]

I mean, he's warning people that the regulars are coming. Right. The regulars is the term for the British army proper. That's the term that they used for that and so if he was saying anything, he's saying, you know, the Regulars are coming, the Regulars are on the march. You know, the. The. The Regulars are on the way to. To Concord or, you know, some version of that. But, yeah, he certainly was still thought of themselves as British, even as late as 1775.

[Don Wildman]

But he doesn't complete the ride, does he?

[Michael Haddam]

No, no. I mean, he. He has some dicey moments on the ride. At one point, he gets caught by a mounted patrol. You know, so Gage sends out this mounted patrol of about 20 riders whose job it was to basically keep a lookout ahead of the march and to cut off any riders. I mean, Paul Revere was well known to the British and to the British leadership, but even British soldiers knew his name. That's how prominent he was in the local revolutionary movement. And they knew well that he was the one who had rode to Portsmouth ahead of the. The alarm there. So. So he was well known. So they. These mounted riders are very much sort of on the lookout for him. You know, specifically. At some point, he gets out to. To Lexington and warns Hancock and Adams that basically, you know, you have to get out of here. They're holed up at the Clark house, which is near the Green, and he tells them what's happening. Hancock kind of fancies himself a soldier and is sort of spoiling for a fight, but Adams eventually convinces him that. That they have to leave. So after that, Revere ends up meeting up with Dawes, who makes his way to Lexington.

[Don Wildman]

Yes.

[Michael Haddam]

And they, along with a local writer that they met up with named Samuel Prescott, are picked up by this mounted patrol. And, you know, when they. This is sort of like right outside of Lincoln. And. And when they're. When they're picked up and the. The mounted patrol asks him, you know, what is your name? He just tells them, you know, Paul Revere. Like, he's not trying to hide it. And they're kind of taken aback. Like, you know, one that they have the Paul Revere, but also that he would, you know, be so bold as to just reveal himself.

[Don Wildman]

Right.

[Michael Haddam]

But they asked him what he was doing, and he told them.

[Don Wildman]

It gets intense. He is a. They hold a pistol to his head.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, he's telling them. The thing that's so interesting about it, too, is that about this. This. The interactions between them is that the mounted riders, and certainly the most of the regulars who ended up on the march to Lexington and Concord really had no idea what the actual mission was. Gage was, you know, sort of big on secrecy in that way. And so only a few officers really knew. The soldiers on the march to Lexington weren't told what the objective was until they were a few miles outside of Lexington and were already hearing gunfire. But so these mounted men did not really know the full extent of the mission. And Revere is sort of relating to them in telling them what he's doing. He's relating to them the mission, and they're getting unnerved by the fact that he knows more about the mission than they do.

[Don Wildman]

Right.

[Michael Haddam]

It's a really unnerving moment for them.

[Don Wildman]

They end up letting him go.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah. They carry him back towards Lexington. And then as the. The alarms are going off all around them and they can see on the hillsides that militiamen are mustering, they decide that they're not going to be slowed down because they would need to ride back to the actual column and warn them. And so they basically just cut his saddle and his reins and. And took his horse. So he was basically out of commission.

[Don Wildman]

Much of this is known because of Revere's own description. He does. He wrote his own account of this, but not until 1798.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

And he does it to someone named Jeremy Belknik. And that's important to note that Revere wasn't into this. He becomes famous despite himself. You know, he's. Yeah, he's not trying for this celebrity. It's. It's. It's really the poem that. That shapes this whole thing as a bigger part of the. Of the story than it really was. But it's worth talking about because it has a very interesting side to it itself. The poet that we're talking about is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was a, you know, a major writer in those days. And we're talking about the 1860s at this point. 1850s, 1860s, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Can you describe this guy? He'd. He'd written big poems. He was one of these epic poem writers.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah. And, you know, and poems about American history. You know, Longfellow's family went back to the Revolutionary War. His grandfather was a captain in the Continental army and actually had commanded Revere in one unit during some stretch. That's Peleg Wadsworth. And then he eventually served in Congress, you know, in the 1790s. So his family's history. And in fact, his aunt, Eliza Wadsworth. I talk about this in the book. It actually opens the book. But, you know, she was. I tell the story where she was so moved by the death of George Washington in 1799 that she asks her father, who's in Congress in Philadelphia, if he could get some kind of memento of George Washington. And so her father sends the letter to Martha Washington, who then responds by including a lock of Washington's hair.

[Don Wildman]

Wow.

[Michael Haddam]

So his aunt had this lock of hair and she died just a few years later. And so it passed to his, her sister, who was a Longfellow's mother. And so he, it eventually comes to his possession. So he has this, he has many connections to the revolution, you know, just through his, his sort of, his family history.

[Don Wildman]

It reminds me to make that part of my will. Those locks of hair are very important. I forget about that all the time. He lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of course, and in the house that George Washington used as headquarters in the Revolutionary wars at a time. He is a major abolitionist. Yeah, he's living the life of these Bostonians in the antebellum years, coming up to the Civil War.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, he's really part of this sort of first generation or so in which Americans could actually be professional writers. There's no real professional writers in the 18th century.

[Don Wildman]

Sure.

[Michael Haddam]

Most of the prominent writers, you know, they, they did other things. You know, the Jeremy Belknap who you mentioned was a well known historian who founded the Massachusetts Historical Society. But his, but his day job was as a clergyman, you know, so that was common. But so he's part of that first generation of professional writers. And like you mentioned, he had a long, a long history of, of not just being sympathetic with the cause of abolitionism and of freedom for African Americans, but, but, but supporting those causes. So his sort of, you know, his, his, his journals and his account books are full of these entries of him making, you know, not, not large, but pretty regular small donations to all kinds of, you know, groups related to abolitionism, to the Underground Railroad. So he was a huge supporter of that movement.

[Don Wildman]

I'll be back with more American history after this short break.

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[Don Wildman]

He had a friend go up to the bell tower of the Old North Church where the lanterns were lit, and that was part of the inspiration for this desire to write the poem.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it's an early example of the effect that visiting historical sites can have on people. Right. I mean, there's a reason that, you know, millions of people go to Mount Vernon or Monticello or the Boston Freedom Trail or the Independence hall every year, you know, and most of those sites, even by 1860, were not yet sort of historical tourist sites. But he's having, you know, a kind of moment like that. You know, it's so extraordinary.

[Don Wildman]

You must feel this as a historian. You know, the days before history was really packaged and told, you know, on any kind of routine basis is such an interesting time. It's so such a wiggly time, really, as how these stories are going to be remembered.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, that's. That's the core of my book, you know, really is, you know, the many ways that Americans, you know, thought differently about the American Revolution, both over time and conflicts that they've had, you know, constantly over the meaning and the legacy of the revolution.

[Don Wildman]

Historical memory is a term I learned not too long ago, which is a fascinating part of this. John. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry figures in the timing of this. This poem being written. First, let's very briefly explain the. The raid on Harpers Ferry. John Brown was a very radical abolitionist. He would have known Longfellow, I suppose.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

And he takes a measure. He takes a step in the process of. Of, you know, he wants to create a war. And it's a bridge too far for most people, like Longfellow.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah. Brown was, I mean, among the most radical of the abolitionists, you know, and not just ideologically, but in terms of action. He's at the heart of everything that's going on in bleeding Kansas in the late 1850s. And there are quotes of him when he was taking these pro slavery people who had moved in to Kansas when he was taking them prisoner and lecturing them about how they were betraying the principles of the revolution. Right. The end of the Declaration of Independence. And you know, that's, that's one of the sort of famous quotes about Brown is, you know, Emerson says that he's a man who believes in, in two things, the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence.

[Don Wildman]

Right, exactly. Well, that's a really interesting side of this and speaks to the historical memory aspect of this whole discussion. You have the south embracing the revolution as their own, you know, as sort of the, the origins of their own revolution against the north, whereas the north is embracing it as that Declaration, all men are created equal. All that. So it's, it's really all of the, the discussion prior to the Civil War and during it somewhat is, is rooted in this idea of the American Revolution.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, part of what's, part of what's happening as I write about this in the book is that, you know, that we think of the Declaration, that the modern sort of memory of the Declaration as being about liberty and equality really only emerges in the 1830s. Before that, it's a document that symbolizes independence and union of the states. Right. But it's really only in the 1830s with the abolitionist movement who basically redefined the Declaration by the preamble. Right. And this idea of these ideas of liberty and equality and, and over the course of the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, the declaration becomes so identified with, with abolitionism that Southerners start to reject it. They say that the phrase all men are created equal was just a rhetorical flourish. And one newspaper writer said that in the hands of the abolitionists, the Declaration had become a very seditious instrument for the Southerners. The Constitution is the real document of the American Revolution. Right. Because that's the document one, that's the structure of government and all of that, but also it's the document that is protecting slavery. Right. And so I sort of, I sort of characterized it by saying that, you know, the, the, the anti, anti slavery people hoped that the Declaration would save the nation from slavery, while the pro slavery people, you know, hope that the Constitution would save the nation from the Declaration.

[Don Wildman]

Interesting.

[Michael Haddam]

You know, so they're really fighting over which of these two founding documents, very different founding documents are. Which one is the document that defines the revolution.

[Don Wildman]

Does Longfellow's poem have the effect that he intended? Does it catch on?

[Michael Haddam]

I mean, it does catch on, that's for sure. I don't know if it's. It's not. If. See that there's a way of thinking about this poem in its relationship, and we start talking about that to Harper's Ferry, and. And Harper's Ferry is the raid that. That John Brown does in. In 1859 on this armory, this federal armory in Virginia. His plan was he was going to seize the armory, take all the guns and the ammunition, and then they were going to go out into the countryside of Virginia and distribute them to enslaved persons. And obviously, he's warned against this rather crazy act by almost everyone, including Frederick Douglass, but he ends up doing it, and he is taken prisoner at the armory, put on trial in quite short order and executed. But the John Brown raid really sent shockwaves throughout the country. Right. It's. It was the worst nightmare of Southerners. Southerners were constantly saying that these abolitionists, they're going to come and try to emancipate our slaves. And this was. Seemed to be like their worst nightmare coming true. And so it was this really massively significant event throughout the country.

[Don Wildman]

Right. So the poem, not unlike a hit song.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

Gets the idea of the revolution out into the zeitgeist at a time when someone like a Longfellow would think it was appropriate. You know, we need to think back to where we come from in the middle of this Civil War tension that's happening, or this oncoming tension that's happening.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

Does he see a parallel exactly. Between John Brown and Paul Revere?

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, the case has been made, and I think it's fairly strong that the poem itself really is a sort of allegory. It's published in late 1860 in the.

[Don Wildman]

Atlantic Monthly, already a seditious periodical.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah. Yeah. And when I say it's an allegory, he is sort of implicitly, not explicitly, because Brown obviously is never mentioned in the poem. Right. But there is a sense of this major event that had just happened, that Brown was in some sense playing a similar role to that of Paul Revere, which is basically sending this warning out and. But at the same time, not just warning people, but having that warning serve as a call to action.

[Don Wildman]

I see.

[Michael Haddam]

Right. Like, that's what Revere. Revere's not just, you know, on his. Right. He's not just out saying, oh, you know, the regulars are coming. The regulars are coming. There is a whole. You know, there was a whole infrastructure that had been built that was ready for that moment that was then put into action. And in some Sense, you know, he saw Brown at Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in a very similar sense as this needs to rouse, you know, the American people to action.

[Don Wildman]

Sure.

[Michael Haddam]

Just like Brown had hoped.

[Don Wildman]

It's the tinder of the fire that's about to explode in this nation. And in the same way Revere had that effect on the Boston world.

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah.

[Don Wildman]

Getting all that started as well. What do you think is the legacy of this poem and really of Revere's ride in general?

[Michael Haddam]

Yeah, it's really only after the poem that Paul Revere sort of becomes part of the broadest national memory of the Revolution. He's pretty well remembered in New England, in Massachusetts, in the early mid 19th century. But it's really the poem that sort of takes his reputation national in a sense, if you want to put it that way. And the poem, it's arguable about whether it had the effect that Longfellow intended. It was this sort of, if we think about it in these terms, as an allegory for Brown's raid and for this, this crucial moment for anti slavery Americans in, in 1860. It is sort of radical in that vein. If you think about it in that vein, it is this sort of radical poem. And it had a similar fate, I think, in some sense to the Gettysburg Address, which also is, you know, a kind of radical statement in that, you know, Lincoln, who was not a rabid abolitionist, but who redefines not just the Founding, but the Civil War as being about these two ideas from the Declaration of Independence as liberty and equality. But then what happens to, in some sense to both of those poems is that the radicality of them gets lost in the translation over time. Like we talked about earlier, both of them become a sort of catechism for American public school children. Right. And they, they have to learn and memorize the poems and they come to sort of lose their. Their inherent radicalness as they come to be part of this schoolhouse liturgy.

[Don Wildman]

This is a big theme and we can end on this question, really the sense of America as looking backward, the embrace that we are constantly doing of the Revolution especially, is in question. I mean, certainly this year coming up, 250 is coming. It's a big deal that we embrace. 250. But there are those among us who say that's the wrong way that America should look. It should be looking forward. It was invented as a country that should be radical and should be moving ahead instead of always embracing its past. I think that this, I mean, speaking of Paul Revere, the famous poem seems appropriate in this context, yeah, in a.

[Michael Haddam]

Lot of ways, that sort of dynamic, that conflict between two ways of thinking about the relationship between the past and the present kind of goes back to the abolitionists. I mean, if you think about Frederick Douglass's famous speech from July 5, 1852, when he talks about the memory of the revolution, he's castigating northerners who are celebrating July 4th, but they're not doing anything to act to further realize the principles of liberty and equality. Right. And so that in his mind, and an abolitionist mind, that's how you honor the memory of the revolution is by working towards more fully realizing those founding principles. And then on the other hand, the sort of more conservative end of the political spectrum, the idea has been that you honor their past in a very sort of celebratory and rather non critical manner. Right. And that really hardens in the very early 20th century, which I talk about in the book. And then that really defines the broad structure of our conflicts over the memory of the revolution basically ever since. Right. And we saw conflicts over that during the bicentennial and we'll see conflicts over those two approaches in the 250.

[Don Wildman]

Michael Haddam is at Yale University and the author of an important book on this subject, certainly as we face these coming years, The Memory of 76 the Revolution in American History, published by Yale University, 2024. Thank you so much, Michael. This is so interesting.

[Michael Haddam]

Thank you for having me, Don.

[Don Wildman]

Hey, thanks for listening to American History hit. You know, every week we release new episodes, two new episodes dropping Mondays and Thursdays. All kinds of content from mysterious missing colonies to powerful political movements to some of the biggest battles across the centuries. Don't miss an episode by hitting like and follow. You help us out, which is great, but you'll also be reminded when our shows are on. And while you're at it, share it with a friend. American history hit with me, Don Wildman. So grateful for your support.

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