Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn

by Robert Martello

  88. Silver cups were indispensable status symbols in upper-class households, often prominently displayed in sideboards, which were eventually known as cupboards. Clarke, “The Craft of Silversmith,” p. 74.

  89. Federhen, “Artisan to Entrepreneur,” pp. 69, 75; Federhen, Paul Revere, Silversmith, pp. 16–17. Revere probably chose to import forks and knives because they required more labor than spoons.

  90. Bridenbaugh, The Colonial Craftsman, pp. 1, 126–127.

  91. Farr, Artisans in Europe, pp. 58–59; Daniels, “Artisans in Maryland,” pp. 754–755; Wood, Radicalism, pp. 64, 66–67; Bridenbaugh, The Colonial Craftsman, p. 154; Larkin, Reshaping of Everyday Life, p. 37; Jonathan Prude, The Coming of Industrial Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 11; Federhen, Paul Revere, Silversmith, p. 7.

  92. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, “Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism in the Early American Northeast,” Journal of American History 90, no. 2 (September 2003): 3–4.

  93. Nathan Rosenberg and E. Birdzell Jr., How the West Grew Rich (New York: Basic Books, 1987), pp. 126–127.

  94. Bridenbaugh, The Colonial Craftsman, p. 129; Larkin, Reshaping of Everyday Life, pp. 43–44; Lamoreaux, “Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism,” p. 6.

  CHAPTER TWO: Patriot, Soldier, and Handyman of the Revolution (1775–1783)

  1. Robert Morris and John Dickinson letter to Oswell Eve, November 21, 1775, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 2 (September 1775–December 1775), ed. Paul H. Smith et al. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976–2000). This resource is also available online at the Library of Congress website at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html.

  2. Samuel Adams letter to Elbridge Gerry, January 2, 1776, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, vol. 3 (January 1776–May 1776), ed. Smith et al.

  3. Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743–1776 (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), pp. 251–252. Britain’s debt in 1763 surpassed 122 million pounds, with yearly interest payments on this debt exceeding 4 million pounds. In the first few years after the war this debt increased by 7 million pounds a year, and the people of England were already crushed by a massive tax burden Parliament imposed in earlier years to fund the war. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 57.

  4. One Boston merchant’s club in the 1760s organized the Society for Encouraging Trade and Commerce within the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Similar groups soon formed in the other large colonial towns. Over the years these groups stayed in touch, and they eventually coordinated common actions such as non-importation movements. Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, p. 282.

  5. Many artisans became economic nationalists, deeply resenting merchants who brought cheap British manufactured goods to local markets. Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 33–34; Lawrence A. Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 28–29; Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, pp. 27–31; T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. xv.

  6. Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, pp. 77–83; John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine (New York: Hill and Wang, 1979), p. 9; Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, pp. 28–29.

  7. Quote taken from Pauline Maier, Merritt Roe Smith, Alexander Keyssar, and Daniel Kevles, Inventing America (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003), p. 171; Maier, Resistance to Revolution, p. 297. During this time period, resistance groups realized that they needed a broader base of popular support to properly justify their ability to act on behalf of “the people.” This led to membership changes, modified ideologies, and new types of outreach activities. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), pp. 58–59, 85–89; Jayne E. Triber, A True Republican (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), pp. 43–44; Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, pp. 91–94.

  8. Artisans played an essential role throughout the colonial resistance movement, and commanded more economic, political, and social status than in any other nation at this time. Artisan dominance of Patriot organizations reflected late eighteenth-century demographics: artisans, shopkeepers, and tradesmen comprised about two-thirds of each urban setting. Although many artisans advocated for American nationalization and independence, this was surely not unanimous. Howard B. Rock, Artisans of the New Republic (New York: New York University Press, 1984), p. 20; Edwin J. Perkins, The Economy of Colonial America, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), p. 122.

  9. Charles S. Olton, “Philadelphia’s Mechanics in the First Decade of Revolution, 1765–1775,” Journal of American History 59, no. 2 (September 1972): 312, 320–321; Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), pp. 244–247; Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, pp. 282–283; Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, pp. 33–34, 41, 61–62; Maier, Resistance to Revolution, pp. 97–100.

  10. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 for various reasons, including the dismissal of the unpopular Prime Minister George Grenville and lobbying efforts by British merchants affected by colonial non-importation initiatives, although it saved face by passing a Declaratory Act confirming its right to implement laws that held authority over its colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

  11. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, pp. xvi–xviii; Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, p. 42. Americans formed a number of communal associations starting in the early days of colonial resistance, in hopes of increasing the quantity of native manufactures. For example, in Boston the old Manufactory House used premiums to lure key students to a revitalized spinning house; New Yorkers initiated the Society for the Promotion of Arts, Agriculture, and Economy; and Philadelphia started a linen manufactory. Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, p. 268; Kasson, Civilizing the Machine, p. 9.

  12. Alfred Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000), pp. 54–55; Olton, “Philadelphia’s Mechanics,” pp. 317–319. Many artisans continued to advocate aggressively for what they perceived as class interests during and after the war. For example, artisans won four of the ten elected city offices in Philadelphia in 1770, and soon afterward the Philadelphia Committee of Nineteen (the organization taking the lead in the resistance movement) invited members from religious associations, mechanics, and ethnic representatives to its membership. Pennsylvania’s rewritten constitution was influenced by artisans and included statements of universal male suffrage, short terms of office, and other features compatible with artisan ideology. Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution, p. 245; Ronald Schultz, “The Small Producer Tradition and the Moral Origins of Artisan Radicalism in Philadelphia 1720–1810,” Past and Present, no. 127 (May 1990): 99–100; Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, pp. 31–33, 40.

  13. Samuel Adams’s efforts played a large part in keeping Boston government centered on the Town Meeting model, which remained until 1822, well after he died. Boston’s artisan organizations continued to take a respectful and constructive tone in their approaches to merchants after the war. New York City artisans generally had more political influence than those in Boston or Philadelphia, as merchants and other gentry courted them. Cities in Revolt, pp. 6–7; Russell Blaine Nye, The Cultural Life of the New Nation, 1770–1830 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1960), p. 125; Gary Kornblith, “Artisan Federalism: New England Mechanics and the Political Economy of the 1790s,” in Launching the “Extended Republic”: The Federalist Era, ed. Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996), pp. 255–258; Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 63–64.

  14. Organization was facilitated by the actions of printers as well as mariners who spread word to different locations. Communication between the cities and regions improve
d steadily up through the Revolution, epitomized by the impressive U.S. Postal Service that included packet boats and non-crown options for patrons concerned with privacy. Most cities handled thousands of pieces of mail a year. Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, pp. 282–283, 289–290.

  15. Revere to John Rivoire, July 1, 1782, in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” Revere Family Papers (hereafter RFP), microfilm edition, 15 reels (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1979), reel 1.

  16. Triber, A True Republican, pp. 81, 85; David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 22, 25.

  17. Rallying song lyrics taken from Elbridge Henry Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere (Boston: Plimpton Press, 1902), p. 128. Also see Triber, A True Republican, pp. 93–95; Annals of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1892), p. 16; Edwin Griffin Porter, Rambles in Old Boston (Boston: Cupples, Upham, and Company, 1887), p. 98.

  18. Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere, p. 641. Revere might have joined the caucus earlier; their records begin in 1772.

  19. Triber, A True Republican, pp. 62, 88; Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 635–642; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, p. 20.

  20. Quotation taken from Revere’s transcript of his Midnight Ride, submitted to Jeremy Belknap in 1798. This deposition is available in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP, and online at the Massachusetts Historical Society website: http://www.masshist.org/cabinet/april2002/reveretranscription.htm. Revere’s leadership role in this organization is also mentioned in Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, p. 265.

  21. The Central Intelligence Agency’s Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) describes this organization as “the first Patriot intelligence network on record.” The CSI rightly describes this operation as “amateurish,” illustrated by the fact that they often met in the same location, The Green Dragon Tavern, and allowed their group to be infiltrated by a British spy, Dr. Benjamin Church. Refer to the CSI website at https://www.cia.gov/library/ for more information.

  22. Quotation found in Triber, A True Republican, p. 101. Triber, A True Republican, pp. 95–98; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, pp. 26–27.

  23. Clarence S. Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings (Worster: American Antiquarian Society, 1954), pp. 22–29, 43–47, 52–57, 79–81; Triber, A True Republican, pp. 79–80.

  24. After the Revolution he was chosen as a health officer of Boston and coroner of Suffolk County, and he also helped found the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company, among other minor service roles. Triber, A True Republican, pp. 99–101, 124, 126; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, pp. 16, 20; Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt, pp. 6–7; Kornblith, “Artisan Federalism,” pp. 257–258.

  25. David Hackett Fischer makes this point in an even more forceful manner in Paul Revere’s Ride, pp. 301–302. Artisan organizations reappeared in the 1790s in the form of Democratic-Republican societies. Wood, Radicalism, pp. 244, 276.

  26. The most authentic retelling of Paul Revere’s ride takes place in his own words. Revere wrote a deposition for the Massachusetts Provisional Congress in 1775 and corrected it that same year. He went into even more detail in 1798 in a long letter to Jeremy Belknap, corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. All quotes in the following sections, unless otherwise noted, are taken from Revere’s letter to Jeremy Belknap, “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP. The most careful reconstruction and interpretation of the Midnight Ride takes place in Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, particularly chapters titled “The Mission,” “The Warning,” and “The Capture.” Jayne Triber offers a concise and shrewd recap and analysis of the Midnight Ride in A True Republican, pp. 102–105.

  27. Quotation found in Arthur Tourtellot, Lexington and Concord: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 114.

  28. This information concerning the early interpretations of Revere’s Midnight Ride is taken from the beginning of David Hackett Fischer’s comprehensive historiographical essay included in pp. 327–341 of Paul Revere’s Ride.

  29. Tourtellot describes the battle on Lexington Green in Lexington and Concord, pp. 131–138, and the book deals with other aspects of the events of April 18–20 as well.

  30. Letter quoted in Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, p. 263; located in “Revere Family Papers II,” reel 4, RFP. Also see Triber, A True Republican, pp. 110, 115.

  31. Triber, A True Republican, pp. 110–111. Revere was not the only person forced into a different line of work. During the Revolution, many skilled artisans suffered major business disruptions due to the presence of armies in their towns or the decreased demand for manufactured items resulting from the distressed economy. Large numbers of these artisans entered the military or served related roles, such as privateering, working in armories, or surveying. Silvio A. Bedini, Thinkers and Tinkers: Early American Men of Science (New York: Scribner, 1975), pp. 238–243.

  32. Artillery expertise was in such short supply in the Continental army that many gunners depended upon British treatises for basic instructions regarding the use and maintenance of heavy ordnance. Bedini, Thinkers and Tinkers, pp. 259–261. Washington’s quote taken from Nye, Cultural Life of the New Nation, p. 106. George Washington came to realize that artisans, other members of the middle classes, and even foreigners attempted to pass as gentlemen, hoping to use the military as a vehicle for social advancement. James Martin and Mark Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789 (Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 2006), pp. 106–107; Gordon S. Wood, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 19.

  33. Revere’s commissions to the Massachusetts militia and then to the artillery regiment and his promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel are all located in “Loose Manuscripts 1746–1801,” reel 1, RFP.

  34. Many of Revere’s military exploits and reproductions of some of his correspondence are reproduced in Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 277–289.

  35. Bedini, Thinkers and Tinkers, pp. 232, 298. Undated entries in “Journal and Commonplace Book, 1777–1801,” reel 14, vol. 51.1, RFP.

  36. Revere’s letter to Lamb quoted in Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, p. 280. Samuel Adams’s response to Revere is located in Samuel Adams to Paul Revere, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, vol. 7 (May 1, 1777–September 18, 1777), ed. Paul H. Smith et al., online at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html. See also Triber, A True Republican, pp. 124–128.

  37. August 1778 letter from Paul Revere to Rachel Revere, “Revere Family Papers II,” reel 4, RFP; also reproduced in Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 305–307. Expedition details are also covered in Triber, A True Republican, pp. 130–133.

  38. An overview of the Penobscot expedition is discussed in Triber, A True Republican, pp. 134–135, but the most authoritative and detailed source by far is George E. Buker, The Penobscot Expedition (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2002). Chapters 3 and 4 cover the American assault, and chapter 5 describes the retreat.

  39. Quote taken from Buker, The Penobscot Expedition, p. 148. The full treatment of Revere’s trials and vindication is contained in great detail in chapter 8; see also Triber, A True Republican, pp. 136–139. The investigating committee initially found Revere guilty of refusing to allow General Wadsworth the use of a boat under Revere’s command, and dereliction in duty during the retreat when Revere marched his men from the Penobscot River back to Boston without specific orders. When Revere disputed these charges again in 1782, the court-martial found that although he did initially refuse the use of his boat, he almost immediately reversed his decision and gave it to the general. And the court threw out the second charge on the grounds that the entire expedition was in disarray during the retreat, and no orders could be effectively given or received.

  40. Patriots became particularly dependent upon gunpowder imports, which accounted for more than 90 percent of
all powder used during the war, as described in Orlando W. Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” American Historical Review 30, no. 2 (January 1925): 277. The American army’s lack of scientific and technical expertise, particularly as applied to surveying, weapons manufacture, and the planning of fortifications, became so prominent that General Washington himself attempted to correct the deficit. He first petitioned John Hancock for relief, saying, “In a former part of my Letter I mentioned the want of Engineers. I can hardly express the Disappointment I have experienced on this Subject, the Skill of those we have being very imperfect.” Benjamin Franklin later requested help from French engineers, some of whom joined the Continental army to help design defensive fortifications, construct maps, and generally supervise engineering activities. At the start of the war, the Continental army often had to do without these services. Bedini, Thinkers and Tinkers, pp. 245–246. See also Gary M. Walton and James F. Shepherd, The Economic Rise of Early America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 179–180; Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, pp. 57–59; Kasson, Civilizing the Machine, pp. 11–12; York, Mechanical Metamorphosis, pp. 64–65.

  41. Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 411–415; Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings, pp. 213–225. During this period Revere and his family shared a crowded Watertown house with Henry Knox and his wife, which might have helped Revere receive contracts from Knox in the future.

  42. Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings, pp. 225–234, 237; Triber, A True Republican, p. 115; Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 415–417. Some of Revere’s copper plates are still preserved in the Massachusetts State House.

  43. Quoted in Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 397–398.

  44. Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” pp. 271–274. Quote taken from p. 274. Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, pp. 52–53.

  45. Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” p. 276.