8. Myth: Paul Revere’s Ride Made Him Famous in His Lifetime
Fact: Even when he died, nobody mentioned the fact that he was one of several riders that fateful night. But he did die a successful businessman and silversmith!
When Paul Revere died in 1818, there was no mention of his now famous ride in his obituary, nor is there any mention of it on his tombstone in Boston’s Granary Burial Ground on Tremont Street. The ride to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British were marching to arrest them were not considered a major event in his lifetime, partly because Revere was just one of several riders on the roads of Massachusetts that night in 1775. Revere was remembered as a successful businessman and silversmith, the founder of the Revere Copper and Brass Company, and a major figure in the growth of the city of Boston.
It wasn’t until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Paul Revere’s Ride, published in 1861, that Revere’s ride became known outside of Boston and outlying communities. The popularity of the poem led to Revere’s ride entering history books and school curricula, though most of the details as described in the poem and retained in American minds are wrong. For example, the famous “one if by land, two if by sea” was a signal to Charlestown sent by Revere, not a signal to him sent by others. Many other myths surround the ride of Paul Revere, and not generally known is that it ended with Revere’s horse in British hands and Revere himself walking to Lexington, having never made it to Concord.