It’s an image many Americans have of the revolutionary figure, Paul Revere: a man in a tricorne hat racing through the streets on a horse and yelling, “The British are coming!” But this image of Revere doesn’t come from history — it comes from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“Revere, because of the ‘Midnight Ride’ poem by Longfellow, he’s become this caricature, this iconic figure, but there’s nothing there,” said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere House. “And so our goal is to unwind that: He’s a father, he’s husband, he’s a businessman.”
As Massachusetts and the rest of the nation kicks off the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Zannieri and the staff at the Paul Revere House hope to instill a more complete and holistic view of Revere to visitors — a view that includes Revere’s family, his neighbors and his neighborhood, which was much more diverse than some might think.
“We just did a study of people in the North End from 1780 to 1810. We had a fellowship, and the scholar was looking at Black people in the neighborhood who would have been Paul Revere’s neighbors,” Zannieri said. “There were also a lot of Native Americans who were on the Harbor, working on the waterfront. So what you would see on the street would be a mixture of people. We sometimes focus on it being monolithic when, in fact, it was a mixed audience.”
That mixed audience was also present at the Old North Church, where Revere would stop during his midnight ride to pass along information about the movement of British troops.
“At the time of the Revolution, this was a very wealthy congregation,” said Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated. “The box pews are purchased by very wealthy white families. Old North has two galleries, and we call them a gallery, but a lot of folks might just say balcony. In the North Gallery, that is where Black and Indigenous congregants would have worshipped, whether they’re free or enslaved, they’d be together in the North Gallery. And it’s a very uncomfortable space.”
Rethinking and reframing the story of Old North Church — the building, its patrons and its role in the Revolution — is what Stewart hopes visitors take away from exploring the historic building at this key anniversary.
“People most know Old North for the one minute when lantern signals were hung on the night of Revere’s ride, April 18, 1775. But we like to say we’re not just a historic one-night stand. We have 300 years of history,” Stewart said. “A lot of people think of Old North as being this iconic symbol of liberty and freedom, and the steeple in particular. And yet the steeple is built in large part with proceeds from enslaved labor.
“There was a stretch where Old North had baptized more Black congregants than any other church in Boston, and yet it’s still a place of inequality,” she continued. “It’s really a place of white supremacy. And it’s seen as a symbol of Americana. So Old North is all of that; it’s not just a steeple.”
Brendan McConville, professor of history at Boston University and a scholar of the American Revolution, said examining how people from different races, ethnicities, economic backgrounds and class interacted with each other and their surroundings is essential to the study of revolutionary figures like Paul Revere and the American Revolution as a whole.
“There’s sometimes a tendency to see the Revolution to simply be something that is about the Founding Fathers,” McConville said. “People like Hamilton make fabulous musicals, and they’re central figures, and I would never say otherwise, but it’s also important, I think, for people to realize that the revolution could not go forward without artisans and farmers, the enslaved. Everyone became involved in one way or another. It touched every single life, and that gave it its transformative power.”
On April 18, 2025 — 250 years later to the day — Paul Revere’s perilous night on the cusp of revolution will become an evening of joy and commemoration.
Just like the same day in1775, the journey will start at the Paul Revere House, where re-enactors will play Paul and Rachel Revere. Paul Revere will leave his home and walk to Old North Church, which will hold a service and a keynote address from historian Heather Cox Richardson. Afterward, three actors will stage a reading of a 45-minute original performance piece commissioned by Old North Illuminated called “Revolution’s Edge.” The lanterns of Old North Church will light up as Revere walks to a boat, which will row him across the Charles River to Charlestown, where the celebration continues for an extraordinary Bostonian whose life was more than a midnight ride.
Learn more about the 250th celebration events at Massachusetts250.org.
This story is part of GBH’s ongoing series, “From Colony to Commonwealth: Massachusetts and the American Revolution.” Learn more and read all the stories here .
Guests
- Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere House
- Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated
- Brendan McConville, professor of history at Boston University and head of the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society
