The image of Paul Revere appropriately riding out of obscurity
Words can be powerful. When woven into a story, words can fire the imagination and give birth to a legend. Such was the case of the story of Paul Revere.
I had grown up hearing of the legendary ride, in fact, I believe that there was a Disney rendering of the story at one point. The legend was so well known that I thought it must have been common knowledge from the start. Not so, according to the exhibits on display at the New York Historical Society. Paul Revere was a respected silversmith and businessman who enhanced his standing through the masonic lodge, the networking mecca of the day.
Examples of his work were on display at the New York Historical Society as part of the exhibit about his life. It was interesting to see what a fine craftsman he was before he branched out into manufacturing, a necessary and lucrative business given the times. The display also featured information about his ride to warn people about the coming of the British on that fateful night. But this event in his life was not well known until the story was told in the famous poem by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. The last stanza is quoted here:
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, -
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen and hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
It was stirring words like these that made Paul Revere's ride part of the story of the American War of Independence.
Longfellow was able to take this one event and fashion a story that passed the test of time. That says as much about Longfellow's writing as it does about our love of story. Telling enthralling stories about events in our ancestors' lives that live on in people's memories is something that family historians can aspire to. Who knows, they might become legends.
Information which appeared under the punch bowl and ladle shown in the preceding picture
Sources:
Last stanza of The Landlord's Tale. Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow
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