Sarah Palin Explains Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

Gawker ^ | 6/3/2011 | Jim Newell

[Incorrigible]

Sarah Palin Explains Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

Jim Newell— It's been at least a few seconds since we last checked in on Sarah Palin's Tour de Grift, which stopped yesterday in Olde Boston Towne. Her bus visited such historical sights as Paul Revere's old shack, where Palin explained the colonist's famous "midnight ride" before the 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord.

The Internet is aflame in scholarly debate over this interpretation:

He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed.

Perhaps we should all brush up on our history of such events should we ever get trapped like this, but this may include some inaccuracies. Revere did not warn the British army to step off by ringing bells in their faces and shooting warning shots at them. That would have been counterproductive. Instead, he notified the appropriate colonists in an alarm system chain to give advance warning for protecting the rebel arsenal in Concord.

Sarah Palin would've shot all those Lobsterbacks good, though, one by one.

 

[bvw]

He warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms.

True: He being the riders and militia.

By ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed.

True: Bells and warning shots rang out in the wake of the patriot riders.

True: Our arms, our freedoms, out livelihoods, or possessions, our households and our goods were going to be secure. No more seizures! WE WERE GOING TO BE FREE! And damn well right we were going to make that all true by force of arms.

Now to you, diogenes ghost: What do you say abut Longfellow? Did our dear early national poet laureate ALSO get the facts wrong? Or in poetic sense were they right?

[palinsupporter1]

We were British, its was pre-Declaration. Bells at Lex and concord were rung. She wins and beclowns media in the process.

[NonValueAdded]

Revere did not warn the British army to step off by ringing bells in their faces and shooting warning shots at them.

Perhaps not artfully told but yes, Paul Revere DID tell the British soldiers holding him captive to listen as bells and alarm shots were being fired across the countryside, that the citizens WERE alarmed and that things did not bode well for their mission.

At last the [British] officers began to feel the full import of what Paul Revere had been telling them. His words of warning took on stronger meaning when punctuated by gunfire. The sound of a single shot had suggested to them that surprise was lost. The crash of a volley appeared evidence that the country was rising against them. As they came closer to the Common they began to hear Lexington's town bell clanging rapidly. the captive Loring, picking up Revere's spirit, turned to the officers and said, 'The bell's a'ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!'"

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer, pp. 135-6.

She came pretty darned close and did so without a teleprompter. Revere and the other riders DID cause the bells to be a'ringing and the militia to be firing shots.

For extra credit, why was there heard a volley of shots fired as they approached Lexington?

[bvw]

Wow! Great post. Thanks!

[NonValueAdded]

see post 15.

[Gargantua]

Oh, you're a Palin suppoter? I never knew.

When I vote for her, it won't be based on her memory of Revolutionary history stories, but on what she plans to do as President. The folks who weren't going to vote for Palin anyway may see some "value" in this, but it's all anecdotal.

If someone were to ask Abe Lincoln to retell the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (America's "first September 11th" Horror, at the hands of the Mormons), even if he botched it (or more likely never heard of it), he still was one of the greatest presidents ever.

Never mind that Palin was historically accurate in her version of events.

Oh, well. < yawn >

;-\

[NonValueAdded]

Yours was good too. Too bad she didn’t take Piper to Battle Road. There was a ranger there who gave a fantastic talk - and he was an immigrant! There’s even a marker where Revere was captured and then had his little talk with the British as they toopk him back to town, the talk to which Sarah referred.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I love this portrait of the famous silversmith (he's inspecting a teapot in the real painting) and I was privileged to see the original painting and many other John Singleton Copley Revolutionary War era portraits as part of an exhibit hosted by the Milwaukee Art museum a few years ago.

You would not believe the detail and life like images Copley painted. I was sad to learn that he went back to England after (or during) the Revolution and never returned to America.

Text below from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces":

"The year 1768 was an important one for two young Bostonians: John Singleton Copley, who painted this picture, and Paul Revere, who sat for it. They were both in their early thirties, and they could not have been more different. This was a time of extreme political tension, when Boston was divided into Whigs, who wanted freedom, and Tories, who were content to stay British. Paul Revere was deeply political - and 100 percent Whig. Copley, on the other hand, was completely uninterested in politics; he wanted only to be neutral, which was not possible. He was about to marry into one of the leading Tory families, the Clarkes (owners of the notorious tea concession). Copley was performing a balancing act, but this was the year when he wrote that he felt he must leave America and go to live in England. There he could be an artist and a gentleman - while silversmith Paul Revere was happy to be a craftsman.

"It was costly to have one's portrait painted, and very unusual to be painted without a gentleman's coat. Revere's descendants misunderstood this picture. They thought it made him look like a workman, and they hid it in the attic, but Revere is wearing an elaborate vest with gold buttons. The great expanse of bare sleeve - a fullness of flowing linen - makes a political statement. There was supposed to be no linen in America unless it was imported. The ladies of Boston objected to this, and in this very year they produced a hundred ells (about 125 yards) of linen. Revere is honoring this act of defiance, sporting a symbol of his country's freedom. The problem is the teapot, because tea was a burning issue. Only the Tories drank tea; the Whigs drank "Boston Tea," which was punch. Why does Revere hold a teapot? Is Copley deliberately trying to balance the Whiggish sleeve? Or was it Revere's own choice - to show off his skills as a silversmith? I see this picture as almost a confrontation between the two young men. Looking at Revere's solid, brooding face, I am not surprised that he won. Copley signed the portrait, but in letters so minuscule that hardly anyone could read them."

[Mr. K]

Why are we paying any attention to the libtard media anymore?

[NonValueAdded]

sorry, not post 15 but rather post 43.

[sappy]

or in which of the 57 states.....

[dforest]

ugh, its worse when you hear it. Good she is pretty.

[Defiant]

That is a picture that will probably be in my dreams for a while.

[King Moonracer]

He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms A faulty transcription perhaps, He warned OF the British, that they weren't coming to kill the MSM!!!!

[facedown]

Sure, I believe every word of this crap.

[smoothsailing]

Thank you so much for posting!

“There was supposed to be no linen in America unless it was imported. The ladies of Boston objected to this, and in this very year they produced a hundred ells (about 125 yards) of linen. Revere is honoring this act of defiance, sporting a symbol of his country’s freedom.”

[Yaelle]

Imagine if Sarah was the ONLY one who had stated that Osama killed Obama, as virtually every commentator did at some point!

Yeah, whatever happened to the FOX local reporter who announced, as Obama approached the podium in the White House hallway, that "President Obama has been killed." He even added the word "President!"

I am sure Sarah Palin knows Revere was not warning the Brits that the Brits were coming. I even give Obama a pass on the 57 states, when it's obvious he meant 47. (No pass for him on corpsmen or his Muslim faith, though, or speaking through G-d Save the Queen.)

[9YearLurker]

Obama has already explained how central Muslims were to our country’s founding. I don’t think Palin has any apologies to make for her rendition.

[dbalaska]

Another Reagan quote belongs with this thread:

“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so. “

[Sea Parrot]

“As long as I can ask Obama on what Hill was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought?”

That just “BREED’s” more questions.