2. Paul Revere’s America
• A mechanic in the 18th century
who made things with his hands.
He took raw lumps of metal, and
made works of art.
• He was a man consumed with
personal ambition and was
devoted to his community. He
helped start a revolution, but his
purpose was to resist change and
to preserve the values of the past.
• He sought the path of virtue but
enjoyed the pleasures of the
world.
3. Paul Revere’s America
• He became a yankee and his mind
and character were shaped by
family, school, church, and the
town itself.
• He gained a discipline of thought
without losing his curiosity about
the world.
• He made frames for miniature
portraits and studied the art of
copper-plate engraving . He did
many illustrations for Boston
printers on the side he learned a
method of “setting false teeth.”
4. General Gage’s Dilemma
• General Thomas Gage was the
most powerful man in North
America.
• For months he tried to act with
firmness and restraint, but the
people of New England had
stubbornly set all his efforts at
defiance.
• He thought of himself as a fair-
minded and moderate man, a
friend of liberty and a defender of
what he was pleased to call “the
common rights of mankind.”
5. General Gage’s Dilemma
• After awhile Thomas Gage had
come to hate his town. A couple
months later he wrote “I wish this
cursed place was burned.”
• The Gages may not have been an
admirable couple, but London
found them amusing, and they
were well connected at Court.
• For Thomas Gage, the rule of law
meant the absolute supremacy of
that many-headed sovereign., the
King-in-Parliament.
6. First Strokes
• Gage had finally set his plan in
motion. His first step was to seize
the largest stock of gunpowder in
New England.
• Gage selected one of his most able
officers, Lieutenant- Colonel
George Maddison, a commander
of the 4th foot.
• On the morning of Sep 1,1774
Maddison’s men crept out of their
quarters and marched to Long
Wharf, where the navy was
waiting with thirteen longboats.
7. First Strokes
• General Gage was very pleased
that his staff had planned the
mission perfectly, and Colonel
Maddison had executed it without
a flaw.
• The people of the town were
caught completely by surprise and
it was rumored that the Province
had been “robbed of it’s powder,"
and that the war had begun.
• That night a young traveler
named McNeil happened to be on
the road from the Connecticut
Valley to Boston.
8. Mounting Tensions
• After months of frost, Boston
larders were empty, and food was
increasingly scarce. The price of
fresh provisions were high in the
crowded town that General Gage
was forced to put his army on salt
rations.
• The drinking water began to go
foul and health started to go
downhill.
• The army had been so sickly
during the winter that many had
died or deserted.
9. Mounting Tensions
• General Gage began doubling his
guards around town to keep his
own men in and the “country
people” out. In desperation he
began to execute his own men.
When a young private tried to
desert for the third time he was
dressed in a white shroud of
repentance, take to Boston
Common, and shit by a firing
squad while the town watched in
complete shock and horror.
In New England, corporal
punishment was lawful for the
violation of God’s
Commandments.