The Life & Works of Paul Revere

However, the Boston in which he grew up was at a crucial point in its history. Once the threat from the French and Indian Wars had subsided (Revere served as a second lieutenant for about a year, defending the Union borders of New York), the colonies began to squirm under the distant control of the British king. Revere, like m any of his fellow citizens, heard the studys about unsportsmanlike taxation in which they had no say. He may non have understood the finer points of the argument, but he precept clearly the impact of British attempts to control and regulate colonial mass.

He became a Freemason, a member of the secret br early(a)ly society that included many local leaders, and was one of the maiden to join the Sons of Liberty, one of the most important groups that eventually direct the call to break away from England's rule. His great contributions to the support of the debate were the engravings he made, caricaturing the pomposity and tyranny of the times. These engravings, the semipolitical cartoons of their day, were especially effective in swaying public opinion. As Bernard Bailyn points out, "However great the political skill and however powerful the intellects of a people's leaders, they can barely act within the scope of the people's existing interests and they can further manipulate symbols

In the impertinently established United States, his good name restored, Revere resumed his trade as one of the county's preeminent silversmiths. He began casting waist and church bells in his foundry; many of these bells are static in use in various New England churches and government buildings. His copper foundry continues in operation; as of 1969, it " fluent [had] a Revere on the board of directors" (Brigham 6).

The legendary rebuke to Lexington was important to the start of the revolution. However, Paul Revere's contributions to the founding of the United States were lots greater than a single, aborted cross-country gallop.

More than almost any other major figure of his time, Revere stood for the common citizen, the someone whose understanding of and participation in the conflict with England made mastery possible.

At the time of his death, Revere was a well consider citizen and craftsman, comfortably settled, who had played an important role in history. Forbes imagines the thoughts of Revere's propagation at his death:

Revere's acceptance by the "gentlemen" of his time was more often than not the result of his forthright personality. Forbes notes, "A nice balance in the midst of good sense and boldness characterized his whole life" (54). He was generous, open, and even-handed, and he had a variety of useful skills. In amplification to his talents as a silversmith and his ingenuity at adapting other works to engraved propaganda for the cause, he was also adept at printing, bell founding, and dentistry, a primitive science at the time. Forbes observes, "His greatest service for his country was probably the prosaic manufacturing of copper for ships when it was urgently needed" (437).

Brigham, Clarence S. Paul Revere's Engravings. New York: Atheneum, 1969.

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