The over exaggeration of Paul Revere

Paul Revere during his famous midnight ride

One of the most renown pieces of America’s revolution against Britain is Paul Revere. He is most famous for warning the Americans that “the British are coming”. It actually turns out that almost everything we think we know about that historic ride was fabricated through a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"

In the famous poem, Revere was on a riverbank across from Boston and saw two lanterns hanging from the Old North Church and then rode his horse, by himself, to Lexington and Concord to warn the Americans of the impending attack of the colonies military supplies by the British, which were coming by sea. Sounds like an exciting story, right?

The way that the events truly happened are not quite as exciting. Through the actual accounts of Revere himself and others involved, historians have an accurate depiction of what truly transpired.

Revere, a silversmith, was also a spy during the revolution and was dispatched to alert the local militias in the colonies of a British attack. Revere lit two lanterns while he was in Boston and the citizens on the other side of the river sent their own rider, William Dawes, to let the Americans know what was about to happen. After Revere hung the lanterns he took a boat across the river and borrowed a horse and rode to Lexington. While on the way to Lexington a third rider met up with them and was named Samuel Prescott. After they sent the warning in Lexington, Paul Revere was detained by the British and the riders split up. After a tough interrogation, the British heard gunshots nearby and this allowed Revere to make his escape, but he never made it to Concord. Revere’s horse was confiscated by the British and he had to return to Lexington by foot. Prescott however, was able to make it to Concord while Revere was detained.

A map of the routes of each rider

Even Revere’s famous quote “the British are coming” is also fabricated. The people that occupied the colonies mostly still classified as British. Luckily, Revere’s actual words were documented by a gate keeper at the house of John Hancock. He was quoted saying “Noise! You’ll have noise enough before long! The regulars are coming out!” when the gate keeper told him to not make much noise. Even if Revere would have screamed out “the British are coming” it would have actually been counterproductive because British soldiers stayed with civilians and Revere would have been caught almost instantly.

The story of Paul Revere would be a part of a conspiracy theory because of the fact that the story we have all grown to know and love, was exaggerated to romanticize the American revolution. This could be the case for all the famous stories about the revolution because even the news and media today love to exaggerate events no matter how big or small they are. Now imagine how much we know about the revolution was exaggerated or made up because it was only written down by a few people with biases.

For facts you may not know about Paul Revere click Here

For more information on Paul Revere and his ride click HERE 

-Michael Brown