Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Free Essays on Paul Revere

REVERE, PAUL 1735-1818, silversmith, industrialist, and American Revolution figure. Although most familiar as the hard-riding hero of Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's claims to historical significance rest even more on his talent as a craftsman and on his industrial perspicacity. The son of a Huguenot silversmith, Apollos Rivoire, and Deborah Hitchbourn, Revere received a rudimentary "writing-school" education before turning to his father's trade. Upon the latter's death, Paul at nineteen assumed artistic responsibility for the family's shop. Over the next twenty years, he became one of the preeminent American goldsmiths - a term that encompassed every phase of the eighteenth-century precious-metals craftsman's art. Besides silver bowls, utensils, pots, and flatware (many of which are museum pieces today), Revere and his apprentices and journeymen turned out a variety of engravings: pictures, cartoons, calling cards, bookplates, tradesmen's bills, and even music. As a sideline, he practiced what passed for dentistry in his day, developing as well a rudimentary form of orthodontia. From the beginning, Revere participated in public affairs. During the French and Indian War, Richard Gridley (who had commanded the artillery at the siege of Louisburg and was later to direct the American digging-in at Bunker Hill) organized an artillery regiment. Commissioned a second lieutenant, Revere participated during 1756 in the failed expedition against Crown Point. Revere became a Freemason in 1760, and soon joined two more overtly political groups - the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus. Through them, he participated in Samuel Adams's gradually accelerating movement toward independence, serving primarily as a courier and an engraver of propaganda pictures, the two best-known examples of which are a "view" of British ships landing troops in 1768 and a wildly inaccurate cartoon depicting the Boston Massacre of 1770. The highlight of hi... Free Essays on Paul Revere Free Essays on Paul Revere REVERE, PAUL 1735-1818, silversmith, industrialist, and American Revolution figure. Although most familiar as the hard-riding hero of Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's claims to historical significance rest even more on his talent as a craftsman and on his industrial perspicacity. The son of a Huguenot silversmith, Apollos Rivoire, and Deborah Hitchbourn, Revere received a rudimentary "writing-school" education before turning to his father's trade. Upon the latter's death, Paul at nineteen assumed artistic responsibility for the family's shop. Over the next twenty years, he became one of the preeminent American goldsmiths - a term that encompassed every phase of the eighteenth-century precious-metals craftsman's art. Besides silver bowls, utensils, pots, and flatware (many of which are museum pieces today), Revere and his apprentices and journeymen turned out a variety of engravings: pictures, cartoons, calling cards, bookplates, tradesmen's bills, and even music. As a sideline, he practiced what passed for dentistry in his day, developing as well a rudimentary form of orthodontia. From the beginning, Revere participated in public affairs. During the French and Indian War, Richard Gridley (who had commanded the artillery at the siege of Louisburg and was later to direct the American digging-in at Bunker Hill) organized an artillery regiment. Commissioned a second lieutenant, Revere participated during 1756 in the failed expedition against Crown Point. Revere became a Freemason in 1760, and soon joined two more overtly political groups - the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus. Through them, he participated in Samuel Adams's gradually accelerating movement toward independence, serving primarily as a courier and an engraver of propaganda pictures, the two best-known examples of which are a "view" of British ships landing troops in 1768 and a wildly inaccurate cartoon depicting the Boston Massacre of 1770. The highlight of hi... Free Essays on Paul Revere â€Å"Listen my children and you shall see 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.† (Longfellow) Thus begins the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This is the poem about Paul Revere and his legendary midnight ride. Paul Revere, one of the greatest heroes of the Revolutionary War, and possibly one of the greatest heroes of our country. Paul Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts in late December 1734 and was the second of twelve children born to Apollos Rivoire and Deborah Hitchborn. Apollos was a French Huguenot immigrant who came to Massachusetts in 1715 and became the apprentice of a Boston goldsmith. Deborah Hitchborn was a natural born native of Boston. (Lee, 13-16) At the age of twelve, Paul was apprenticed to his father as a silversmith, and he earned extra money as a bell ringer at the Old North Church in Boston. At age nineteen, as the oldest son of the family he became the supporter of the family after his father died in 1753. In 1757 Revere started a family of his own when he married Sarah Orne. At this time he changed his name from Rivoire to Revere. His wife then had a son named Paul Revere Jr., and soon after that seven daughters followed. In May of 1773 Sarah died and five months later Revere married Rachel Walker. With Walker he had eight more children. (Lee, 23-26) Revere owned a silvershop and this was the cornerstone of his professional life for more than 40 years. As the master of his silversmith shop, Revere was responsible for both the workmanship and the quality of the metal alloy used. He employed many apprentices and journeymen to produce pieces ranging from simple spoons to magnificent full tea sets. His work, which was praised during his lifetime, is now regarded as one of the outstanding achievements in American decorative arts. (www.paulreverehouse.com) Revere...

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