Marty Beard from Stewartdale, North Dakota, always manages to bring great thoughts to every conversation. He recently generated a discussion with me about how most Americans today would be too fearful to walk in the woods at night.
He went on to say that if Paul Revere had that same limitation, we might not even be a free nation today. Then he added, “Wait, I mean if all three of them had not been unafraid?”
How many people actually know that the entire “emergency broadcast system” of April 18, 1775, included three horseback riders and not solely Revere? As it turns out, William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott may have actually been the true source of more awareness than Revere.
An American Experience article about William Dawes noted, “On his ride west, Dawes alerted more riders, who in turn rallied companies from neighboring towns: Dedham, Needham, Framingham, Newton and Watertown. Avoiding trouble, Dawes made good time and caught up to Revere in Lexington just after midnight. After notifying Hancock and Adams, Dawes and Revere set out for Concord together, joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, a Concord resident who had been visiting a girlfriend.”
As it turns out, a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did more to shape our knowledge of history than our social studies books.
“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,” according to Christopher Klein’s History.com article “The Midnight Ride of William Dawes.”
With every passing day I become more hungry for history, not only of our nation but of the world. Yet I understand that what we know about history is only what we are told. By the most generous accounts, about 15% of the inhabitants of the colonies took up arms and fought the British.
My point is that in today’s world we tend to think that we are in the minority and we cannot win a battle or a war. But the truth of the matter is that no matter what percentage of people are willing to engage in the truth, we are always the winner if we are willing to fight for what is right and hold strong to our moral convictions.
I do not live in fear but I do fear that too many people have the false notion that they, as just one person or even part of a small group, cannot make a difference. It is my assessment that in 2022 there will be a Dawes warning the everyday citizens about what is happening and who will make all the difference in the outcome, not just a Revere who got notoriety for his midnight ride. I am not saying that Revere did not matter; I am just saying that sometimes the person who did not get recorded properly by history may have the greatest impact.
Today’s world is not really that different from the world gone by and it doesn’t matter much who gets credit for the freedom we have enjoyed in the United States of America thanks to a midnight ride, but what really matters is that we continue to make sure that we can enjoy it for generations to come.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].