Write a report on Paul Revere

ILTers,
Using this blog for your subject matter and inspiration, comment on this post and write a report on Paul Revere.  Write your name at the top.  Take the full period for your report.

Early Years

Paul Revere was born in the North End of Boston on December 21, 1734, according to the Old Style calendar then in use, or January 1, 1735, in the modern calendar.[1] His father, a French Huguenot born Apollos Rivoire, came to Boston at the age of 13 and was apprenticed to the silversmith John Coney.[2] By the time he married Deborah Hitchborn, a member of a long-standing Boston family that owned a small shipping wharf, in 1729, Rivoire had anglicized his name to Paul Revere. Their son, Paul Revere, was the third of 12 children and eventually the eldest surviving son.[3] Revere grew up in the environment of the extended Hitchborn family, and never learned his father's native language.[4] At 13 he left school and became an apprentice to his father. The silversmith trade afforded him connections with a cross-section of Boston society, which would serve him well when he became active in the American Revolution.[5] As for religion, although his father attended Puritan services, Revere was drawn to the Church of England.[6] Revere eventually began attending the services of the political and provocative Jonathan Mayhew at the West Church.[6] His father did not approve, and as a result father and son came to blows on one occasion. Revere relented and returned to his father's church, although he did become friends with Mayhew.[7]

Paul and his ride

In the 1770s Revere enthusiastically supported the patriot cause; as acknowledged leader of Boston's mechanic class, he provided an invaluable link between artisans and intellectuals. In 1773 he donned Indian garb and joined 50 other patriots in the Boston Tea Party protest against parliamentary taxation without representation. Although many have questioned the historical liberties taken in Longfellow's narrative poem Paul Revere's Ride (1863), the fact is that Revere served for years as the principal rider for Boston's Committee of Safety, making journeys to New York and Philadelphia in its service. On April 16, 1775, he rode to nearby Concord to urge the patriots to move their military stores, which were endangered by pending British troop movements. At this time he arranged to signal the patriots of the British approach by having lanterns placed in Boston's Old North Church steeple: “One if by land, and two if by sea.” Two days later he set out from Boston on his most famous journey to alert his countrymen that British troops were on the march, particularly in search of Revolutionary leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Both he and his compatriot William Dawes reached Lexington separately and were able to warn Hancock and Adams to flee. The two men together with Samuel Prescott then started for Concord, but they were soon stopped by a British patrol, and only Prescott got through. Revere was released by the British and returned on foot to Lexington. Because of Revere's warning, the Minutemen were ready the next morning on Lexington green for the historic battle that launched the American Revolution.