Paul Revere Lesson Plan & Guided Walking Tour
By WalkBostonhistory.com
Audience:
Objective:
To present Paul Revere’s many contributions to the industrial and military growth of a new America.
Material:
Portraits of Paul Revere
Maps of 18th Century Boston, Charlestown, Lexington, Concord
Overlay map of 21st Century Boston
Picture of his silver Liberty Bowl; the “GLORIUS NINETY-TWO”
Educational Walking Course:
General Plan (easily adjustable);
The Paul Revere Tour begins with his contribution to America’s industrial revolution of the 19th Century and finishes with the American Revolution of the 18th Century. While the tour is in reverse chronological order it emphasizes his vast contribution to America beyond his midnight ride.
Syllabus and Tour Stops:
Class Preparation, assignments or tour discussions:
Suggested Class Activity Post Walking Tour;
By WalkBostonhistory.com
Audience:
- High school or higher
- Tour: 1.5 to 2.0 hours. Groups up to 25. If larger than 25, two groups simultaneously or back to back
- The course is modestly downhill, (1.1 miles), crisscrossing the Freedom Trail and finishing at Paul Revere’s Museum in the North End
- Customization readily available according to your lesson plan and time constraint
- Tours can be made ADA compliant.
Objective:
To present Paul Revere’s many contributions to the industrial and military growth of a new America.
Material:
Portraits of Paul Revere
Maps of 18th Century Boston, Charlestown, Lexington, Concord
Overlay map of 21st Century Boston
Picture of his silver Liberty Bowl; the “GLORIUS NINETY-TWO”
Educational Walking Course:
- Granary Burial Ground Tremont Street
- Kings Chapel
- Court Square
- Dock Square/Faneuil Hall
- Original Green Dragon Tavern
- Launch site of his row to Charlestown
- The Copps Hill Burial Ground Reflection on Charlestown
- The Old North Church
- Edes and Gill Printing Museum,
- Captain Jackson’s Chocolate Shop
- Paul Revere’s Statue
- Site of his Foundry
- North Square
- Hichborn House
- Revere’s Second Home and current museum, end of tour
General Plan (easily adjustable);
The Paul Revere Tour begins with his contribution to America’s industrial revolution of the 19th Century and finishes with the American Revolution of the 18th Century. While the tour is in reverse chronological order it emphasizes his vast contribution to America beyond his midnight ride.
Syllabus and Tour Stops:
- At the Granary Burial Ground and Paul Revere’s monument.
- A brief review of his coming to America
- Huguenot heritage; persecution in France, a haven in America among the Puritans?
- Sixteen children, 52 grandchildren. Who survived him?
- A discussion of his State House inaugural speech (1798) capping a career and capping the leaky State House with copper.
- The Revere Copper & Brass Company today
- Kings Chapel and a very active Revere church bell; one among hundreds. His grandchildren and their participation in the Civil War. Their second revolution.
- At Court Square, his service to Boston as a coroner, (the inquests into sudden deaths).
- At Court Square, his court martial trial and the Penobscot Expedition.
- At the Old State House, did Paul Revere witness the Boston Massacre; presenting his engraving and sketch
- The hardware store at Dock-Square; history of Dock Square and Faneuil Hall and landfill.
- The gunpowder mill in Canton. How he learned to make gunpowder
- A sample of his poetry
- Overview of Paul the spy
- The launch site and row to Charlestown that began his famous midnight ride.
- How did Rachel Revere and their dog save the night?
- How did he arrive at Lexington, his capture, escape and time at Lexington Green
- Where and what was Paul doing when the first shots were fired?
- Why no one knows the name of the horse he rode that famous night
- At Copps Hill, reflecting back on his contributions to the U.S. Navy
- The Old North Church,
- who is Robert Newman
- Paul’s apprenticeship as a bell ringer.
- A visit to the original Edes & Gills printing museum actively printing The Declaration of Independence in original format
- The Captain Jackson Chocolate Shop. The third most popular drink of 18th Century Boston
- At his statue, was he a dentist or dental technician?
- Finding Joseph Warren among the dead on Bunker Hill
- Any connection to George Washington’s wooden teeth?
- His other rides for the Express Service.
- Paul establishes his foundry in the North End
- His first home purchased, today a museum. Circa 1660
- Did Paul witness the Boston Massacre?
- Did Paul participate in the Boston Tea Party? His aunt certainly thought he did.
- The artisan, how many hammers does it take to make an artisan?
- Apprenticeship indenture; contractually obligated to his father and mother. A worldwide practice
- The small pox epidemic
- His desire to be an esquire. The white wig consistently alluded him.
- How he spent his last two days
Class Preparation, assignments or tour discussions:
- Overview of the religious wars of the 17th and 18th centuries and the Huguenot purge by Louis XIV and his son, and grandson.
- Was Boston in the early 18th Century a sanctuary city (like today) or a beehive of
entrepreneurial opportunity? - What had greater value as currency, gold or silver? Why?
- What was the average life expectancy?
- European visitors noticed that Bostonian mothers had terrible teeth. Explore or assign.
- What was the composite population of Boston in 1775?
- Biographical assignments on Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, General Thomas Gage, William Dawes, Robert Newman
Suggested Class Activity Post Walking Tour;
- What were the dominant careers and economic occupations of Bostonians around 1770?
- How was the town of Boston organized, politically, socially and economically?
- Provide a profile of his wives?
- How many of Paul Revere’s church bells remain in Boston? How did he, a silversmith learn the craft of bell, cannon and copper making?
- Diagram the technology used by the Reveres to produce church and ship bells, cannon or gunpowder.
- What is inaccurate in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”.
- Provide a bibliography for answers to the questions above.
- Fact check the top ten google listings on Paul Revere.
