Paul Revere by J S Copley 1768 (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Paul Revere’s life as a silversmith and engraver was transformed by the conflict between Britain and its colonies that culminated in the American War of Independence. His ride from Boston to Lexington in 1775, and its commemoration in a ballad by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, turned him into an American folk hero.

Family and Early Life

Paul Revere was born on 1 January 1735. His father, Apollos De Revoire, was a Huguenot refugee who settled as a child in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was apprenticed to a silversmith. This trade was passed down to the young Paul, along with enough education to enable him to read books about metallurgy later in his life.

After serving in the army as a lieutenant of artillery in 1756, Revere continued his father’s trade, creating some fine pieces of silverware. To supplement his income he also took work engraving, making surgical instruments and replacing missing teeth.

The Boston Massacre

A great deal of tension existed between the American colonies and the British government with regard to taxation. British troops were deployed to police areas that were seen as becoming ungovernable, 3500 in Boston alone. On 5 March 1770 a platoon of eight soldiers were sent to disperse an angry crowd that had gathered around an argument between a soldier and a wigmaker’s apprentice. The crowd threw icy snowballs at the platoon, who panicked and opened fire. Five people were killed, including an Irish leather breeches-maker, Patrick Carr, and a black sailor, and former slave, Crispus Attucks.

The soldiers were tried for murder, but were successfully defended by patriot, and future president, John Adams. The popular opinion of the colonists was that the shootings were a deliberate act and an engraving by Paul Revere helped to promote this view. Prints of Revere’s engraving, showing defenceless civilians being fired upon by a line of British soldiers, were widely circulated. It was also reproduced on the front page of the Boston Gazette.

Copy of Paul Revere’s Boston Massacre engraving (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

The Boston Tea Party

By 1773, the arguments over taxation without representation had escalated in Boston to a trade boycott against Britain. Although most of the Townshend Acts, imposing duties on goods imported into the colonies, had been repealed in 1770, a duty on tea was still in place. The 1773 Tea Act granted a monopoly on tea imports to the British East India Company. At some ports consignments were cancelled in protest, but in Boston the royal governor, Thomas Hutchinson, declared that ships would be allowed to dock and all duties had to be paid. Three ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver, docked in Boston Harbour but the consignees refused to pay the duties.