Paul Revere (freedom fighter)

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Paul Revere (1768)

Paul Revere (baptized December 22, 1734 July / January 2,  1735 greg. In Boston , Province of Massachusetts Bay ; † May 10, 1818 there ) was an American freedom fighter .

Life

The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th, 1770 . The colored copper engraving from Revere's workshop was made three weeks after the incident. The prints were widely used and had a considerable propaganda effect.

Paul Revere learned the trades of silversmith and book printer and worked as a graphic designer and dental technician .

With his most famous artwork, a representation of the " Boston Massacre " of 1770, he was among the top anti-British propagandists. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty and participated in the Boston Tea Party (1773).

When the Revolutionary War broke out , Revere became a messenger for the Boston Patriots. Together with two other horsemen ( William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ) he undertook the famous midnight ride from Boston to Lexington and Concord on April 18, 1775 to warn the residents of the approaching British troops . This episode was later immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - a grandson of General Peleg Wadsworth  - in the famous poem Paul Revere's Ride . Paul Revere thus became one of the national heroes of the American Revolution .

The actually historical ride, which actually informed the American colonists about the attack by the British, was undertaken by the courier rider Israel Bissell (1752-1823) from April 19 to 24, 1775. Bissell put the 345 miles between Watertown and Philadelphia in four Back days and six hours while Revere was only nineteen miles between Boston and Cambridge . In his luggage Bissell had a message from General Joseph Palmer , which was copied and redistributed at every stop.

In war served Revere first as a Major of Infantry and was in 1776 to Colonel of artillery in the militia of Massachusetts transported. His only real battle against British forces took place during the Penobscot Expedition , which was a disaster for American troops. In several reports from participants in the expedition - including that of Deputy General Peleg Wadsworth - Revere was accused of cowardice and unsoldier behavior. For example, he had refused the order to rescue the crew of a schooner with his launch because he did not want to endanger his luggage. His skills as an artillery commander have also been questioned several times. In hearings following this expedition, Revere was advised to quit duty. In order to clear his name, he subsequently forced a hearing before a court martial , which acquitted him of all accusations in February 1782 after the victory at Yorktown , since Commodore Dudley Saltonstall had already been blamed for the failure of the expedition and after having won his own victory no longer had any interest in dealing with the disaster in Penobscot Bay .

After the war he worked again as a silversmith and engraver. He recognized the growing market for church bells early on and became one of the best-known bell manufacturers. He was the Grand Master of Freemasons and was involved in some social projects.

Honors

Revere equestrian statue in Boston

In 1871 the independent city of North Chelsea (Massachusetts) was renamed Revere . Their beach is called Revere Beach . In 1951 an American military settlement in what is now the northern part of Karlsruhe was called Paul Revere Village , and in 1984 a residential complex in Millbury (Massachusetts) was given the same name. In 1989 the Paul Revere Middle School was founded in Los Angeles .

In the Walt Disney film Johnny Tremain (1957) based on the novel by Esther Forbes , directed by Robert Stevenson , Paul Revere is played by Walter Sande .

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Revere  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon , revised and expanded new edition of the 1932 edition. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3 , 951 pp.
personal data
SURNAME Revere, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH baptized January 2, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts, USA
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1818
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts, USA