Revolutionary Leaders

Paul Revere did not come from the same social class as other Massachusetts patriots like John Hancock, Samuel Adams or John Adams. As a silversmith, his background was humbler, but his attitudes about Britain were anything but humble. His famous midnight ride that warned of the advancing British troops was just one of his revolutionary actions.

"Radical" is a title that few people wear comfortably. In the run-up to the American Revolution, though, the name Patrick Henry became synonymous with that word in the minds of American colonists and the British Empire alike. Henry had earned his reputation as a passionate and fiery orator. Some historians view his declaration "Give me liberty, or give me death!" in 1775 as the first shot fired in the Revolutionary War, the colonies' struggle for independence from Great Britain.

On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States. Washington was concerned that, as the first president, what he did would become an example for future presidents. He wrote to James Madison saying that he hoped that whatever examples came from his actions "may be fixed on true principles.”

Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. His scientific pursuits included electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A printer and writer known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin was a knowledgeable person who published Poor Richard’s Almanack, invented bifocal glasses and organized the first successful American library.

"These are the times that try men's souls." This quotation comes from Thomas Paine's pamphlet "The American Crisis." It describes not only the rough start of the American Revolution but Paine's own experience. Throughout most of his life, his writings inspired action but also made him enemies. He communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to scholars, creating writing that stirred the hearts of the young United States. He was staunchly anti-slavery, and he was one of the first to argue for a world peace organization and for providing social security for the poor and elderly. However, his differing views on religion would destroy his success. By the end of his life, only a handful of people attended his funeral.