The Ride of Paul Revere

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year."

This poem by H. W. Longfellow celebrates the night Paul Revere rode to warn American Patriots of military troops marching towards Lexington. The next day, fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, the very first battles of the American Revolution. It was the famous "shot heard 'round the globe".

Paul Revere had already chosen sides between Patriots and Loyalists: he had been involved in the "Boston Tea Party" and as a master silversmith, he had made an engraving of the Boston massacre, which generated support for the Patriotic cause.

Now, let's go even further back in time! Paul Revere's father shared the same name. However, before emigrating to America, his name was Apollos Rivoire! He was part of a French Huguenot family that fled the country due to Louis XIV revoking the Edict of Nantes, thus ending religious tolerance towards Protestants. This is one of the reasons why I love history, it is like a Russian doll: a story within another story, and so on...