Bad News Traveled Fast (For 1775) After Paul Revere’s Ride

By Dottie Evans

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

––Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1860

 

It is probably safe to say that in 1775 when Paul Revere made his famous ride through the countryside west of Boston spreading the news of the British coming, most Massachusetts colonists were quite ready to fight for the cause of independence.

“Literally within minutes, men throughout the town were dressing hastily and reaching for their muskets, while wives packed a few provisions in their shoulder bags, and small children sat up in their trundle beds and rubbed the sleep from their eyes.” [Jonas Clarke, “Narrative of Events of April 19.”]

Tensions between the Colonists and the Royalists had risen to such a level after the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party that war with the British may have been inevitable. But many historians believe it was Paul Revere’s ride that ignited the spark and set everything in motion.

Author Howard Fast described this dramatic event in his 1961 novel April Morning, the book chosen for the Newtown Reads project sponsored by the Booth Library two years ago. Who could forget the image of young patriot Adam Cooper waking at 1 am and looking out his bedroom window as a strange horseman gallops into town.

The sound was of a horse being raced through the night, and clearer and clearer came the drumbeat of its hoofs. I strained my eyes toward the Menotomy Road [Lexington to Arlington] but it was too dark and there were too many trees obstructing my vision for me to make out a rider. He was nearer now, and the hoof beats echoed through the whole village.

Adam Cooper does not know the rider’s identity but the message he brings changes everything. That very morning his father, a patriot and militiaman, will be killed at the Battle of Lexington.

 

Book Club Considers An American Hero

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, the Non-Fiction Book Club met at The Booth Library to discuss their December selection, Paul Revere’s Ride written by David Hackett Fischer.

Again, the issue of Revere’s role in American history was explored, raising questions and comments from club members in a discussion led by facilitator Kathy Winton.

What about the leadership style of Paul Revere who was a man of action, as compared to that of British General Gage who hoped to avoid war by disarming the colonists?

What were the motives of two Boston Whigs, John Hancock and Sam Adams, who seemed to have commercial interests and “an ax to grind” if war broke out sooner rather than later, as book club chairman Howard Gorham put it?

Who started the war? Which side fired the first shot at the battle on Lexington green?

Was Paul Revere a lone rider, or were there actually four riders who helped pass the message along, all organized ahead of time and awaiting his signal? Did he see the famous signal of the two lanterns in the church steeple from across the bay, or did he actually hang the lanterns himself?

“Do we, as a people, need Paul Revere?” asked Ms Winton.

Most members agreed that, yes, we do –– even if the myth of the man has grown greater than historical fact.

“We always need our heroes, and mostly we can only appreciate them in retrospect,” said book club member Paul Mangiafico.

The club also considered the matter of loyalty to crown or colony. Which side would they have been on if they had heard Paul Revere’s news during the middle of the night some 220 years ago?

 “I’m not sure. While I would have sided with those who hated the British taxes and I might have been in favor of free trade, I would not have quickly overthrown my English heritage,” said club chairman Howard Gorham.

Newtown: A Tory Town In 1775

It turns out this was what most people living in Newtown were thinking at the time. If Paul Revere had ridden through this town with news intended to galvanize its patriots to unite and fight, most residents loyal to the crown would most likely have closed the shutters and gone back to bed.

This was because though many towns in Connecticut had already declared themselves in opposition to British rule by 1775, Newtown residents were not sympathetic to the revolutionary cause.

In 1770, half of the 350 families in Newtown (numbering some 2,229 individuals) were members of the Church of England, and through the years they had remained in touch with the homeland. In fact, Newtown had sent a “memorial” on March 6, 1775 to the General Assembly [written just six weeks before Paul Revere’s ride] that cited the “unhappy Difference that now Subsists between the parent State and her colonies.”

Town Historian Dan Cruson describes Newtown’s Tory sentiments in an April 1989 issue of The Rooster’s Crow published by the Newtown Historical Society.

“The strength of the Tory-Loyalist sentiment in this area appears to have been due primarily to the influence of Rev John Beach,” writes Mr Cruson, describing the influential Anglican minister of Trinity Church who continued to pray for the King in Sunday services until his death in 1781.

Mr Cruson adds that though “there ultimately was no Tory uprising in this area,” there was “no doubt a great deal of bitterness seething below the surface.”

On the eve of its Tercentennial Year, it can’t hurt to set the record straight about where Newtown stood at the onset of the American Revolution––squarely on the British side. When Paul Revere spread the word that ignited most New England patriots to action, residents of this town could not have welcomed the news when they finally did hear about it, two days after the fact.