Welcome to the April edition of The Throwback, your monthly hit of entertaining and informative history tales that will make you say, “Wait! What?” If you are receiving this e-mail, you have signed up on my website or at one of my lectures or author events.
I’ve always felt a little sorry for William Dawes.
Although every schoolchild knows of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, it was Dawes who made an even more daring gallop out of Boston that same April night in 1775. And unlike the famed silversmith, Dawes evaded capture by the British. Yet it’s Revere’s immortal name that has graced a famous ode, a line of copper cookware, and even a kitschy 1960s rock band.
Dawes, meanwhile, is the Rodney Dangerfield of the American Revolution, getting no respect at all.
On the evening of April 18, 1775, as British troops began to cross the Charles River on a mission to presumably arrest John Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren dispatched one rider by land and another by sea to warn the pair. Warren knew that the rider who had to take the longer land route and pass through the British checkpoint had the riskier mission, and he trusted the job to Dawes.
Unlike Revere, the 30-year-old Dawes wasn’t a known rabble-rouser, and his work as a tanner frequently took him out of Boston, so his face was a familiar one to the British manning the checkpoint. Another difference with Revere, who awoke town leaders and militia commanders along the way to share his news, Dawes apparently let them sleep, either because he was singularly focused on getting to Lexington as quickly as possible or because he wasn’t as well-connected with the patriots in the countryside.
Dawes arrived in Lexington a half-hour before Revere, who had traveled a shorter distance on a faster horse. After the two riders mounted their weary steeds again to warn the residents of Concord, Revere was captured by a British patrol while Dawes managed to escape.
Both Dawes and Revere were relatively unheralded when they died, but the silversmith got the PR boost of a lifetime when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow obliterated all boundaries of poetic license in mythologizing Revere’s gallop in his famous 1861 ode, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Longfellow’s historically challenged verses not only venerated Revere, but they wrote Dawes out of the storyline altogether.
How did Revere land Longfellow’s leading role while Dawes couldn’t even warrant a walk-on cameo? Revere was certainly more prominent in Boston’s political underground and business circles, but more important, he had written detailed first-person accounts of his mission, while very few records of Dawes and his ride exist. Then again, did Longfellow simply think Revere had an easier name to rhyme?
Did you know that he was court-martialed during the American Revolution? Four years after his midnight ride, a military disaster left Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere under arrest and facing charges of insubordination and cowardice. Click here to read more in this piece I wrote for History Channel.
Ever hear of the Midday Ride of Paul Revere? Longfellow made the patriot’s ride to Lexington legendary, but the story of Revere’s feverish gallop to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, four months earlier to warn that British regiments were on the move to secure military supplies from the rebels deserves to be retold as well. Some in New Hampshire consider the events of December 13 and 14 in 1774 to be the true starting point of the war for independence. Click here to read more about this piece I wrote for Smithsonian.com.
WHAT I’M WATCHING:The violent attacks on Asian-Americans since the start of the pandemic are disturbing enough, but they have their roots in a long history of discrimination in the United States. A great backgrounder on this history is the PBS American Experience documentary on the Chinese Exclusion Act. The 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to immigrate to the country and denied citizenship to Chinese nationals remained in force until 1943—when a new law allowed all of 105 Chinese immigrants into the country each year. Watch online at the PBS website.
WHAT I’M WATCHING:Think of this recommendation as a St. Patrick’s Day leftover far more appetizing than three-week-old corned beef and cabbage. This year’s online St. Patrick’s Festival featured a series of light-hearted cartoons about Irish history called The Dodgy History of Ireland. There are short hits on well-known figures such as St. Patrick and lesser-known figures such as Buck Whaley. Click here to watch.
PLEASE SUPPORT INDIE BOOKSTORES! The publishing industry has hardly been immune from the economic impact of the coronavirus. For businesses operating on small margins and struggling to compete with Amazon.com to begin with, the shutdown has inflicted deep blows on independent bookstores. When shopping for your next read, please consider making a purchase from your local independent bookstore or through Bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores. Every little bit helps.
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Both Dawes and Revere were relatively unheralded when they died, but the silversmith got the PR boost of a lifetime when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow obliterated all boundaries of poetic license in mythologizing Revere’s gallop in his famous 1861 ode, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Longfellow’s historically challenged verses not only venerated Revere, but they wrote Dawes out of the storyline altogether.
