The term Indian in this article refers to the Indigenous people of Canada; not to be confused with South Asians from Indian subcontinent.

Aboriginal peoples in Canada
First Nations · Inuit · Métis This article is part of a series
History Paleo-Indians Pre-colonization Genetics Integration  · Conflicts First Nation  · Inuit
Politics Crown and Aboriginals Treaties  · Health Policy Royal Commission Indian Act · Politics Organizations · Case law Indian Affairs Canada
Culture Aboriginal cultures Aboriginal personalities
Demographics AB (FN, Métis)  · Atlantic CA  · BC MB  · ON  · QC  · SK Territories  · Pacific Coast
Linguistics Aboriginal languages Inuit languages Indigenous Languages Aboriginal syllabics Inuit grammar
Religions Inuit mythology Traditional beliefs
Index Index of articles Aboriginal · First Nations Inuit  · Métis · Stubs
Wikiprojects Portal Aboriginal Canadian portal WikiProject Indigenous North Americans First Nations Commons · Wiktionary Inuit Commons · Wiktionary Métis Commons · Wiktionary
v t e

In Canada, an Indian reserve (usually capitalized as Indian Reserve) is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not vested in the Crown (for example, Wikwemikong Unceded Reserve on Manitoulin Island) is also subject to the Indian Act provisions governing reserves. Superficially a reserve is similar to an American Indian reservation, although the histories of the development of reserves and reservations are markedly different. Although the American term reservation is occasionally used, reserve is normally the standard term in Canada.

The terms "Native reserve," "First Nations reserve" and "First Nation" are also widely used instead of Indian reserve. Strictly speaking, however First Nation more properly designates a band government and/or the group of people it represents, which may commonly occupy more than one reserve. For example, the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario is only one of three reserves in Western Ontario occupied by members of the Munsee-Delaware First Nation. In all, there are over 600 occupied reserves in Canada, most of them quite small in area. Some reserves are shared by multiple bands, whether as fishing camps or educational facilities such as Peckquaylis.

The Indian Act gives the Minister of Indian Affairs the right to "determine whether any purpose for which lands in a reserve are used is for the use and benefit of the band." Title to land within the reserve may only be transferred to the band or to individual band members. Reserve lands may not be seized legally, nor is the personal property of a band or a band member living on a reserve subject to "charge, pledge, mortgage, attachment, levy, seizure distress or execution in favour or at the instance of any person other than an Indian or a band" (section 89 (1) of the Indian Act). While the act was intended to protect the Indian holdings, the limitations make it difficult for the reserves and their residents to obtain financing for development and construction, or renovation. To answer this need, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has created an on-reserve housing loan program. Members of bands may enter into a trust agreement with CMHC, and lenders can receive loans to build or repair houses. In other programs, loans to residents of reserves are guaranteed by the federal government.

Provinces and municipalities may expropriate reserve land only if specifically authorized by a provincial or federal law. Few reserves have any economic advantages, such as resource revenues. The revenues of those reserves which do, are held in trust by the Minister of Indian Affairs. Reserve lands and the personal property of bands and resident band members are exempt from all forms of taxation except local taxation.

Corporations owned by members of First Nations are not exempt, however. This exemption has allowed band members operating in proprietorships or partnerships to sell heavily taxed goods, such as cigarettes, on their reserves at prices considerably lower than those at stores off the reserves. Most reserves are self-governed, within the limits already described, under guidelines established by the Indian Act.

Due to treaty settlements, some Indian Reserves are now incorporated as Villages, such as New Aiyansh, British Columbia, which like other Nisga'a reserves was relieved of that status by the Nisga'a Treaty. Similarly, the Indian Reserves of the Sechelt Indian Band are now Indian Government Districts.

See also[link]

• List of Indian reserves in Canada
• List of Indian reserves in Canada by population

External links[link]

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

• First Nation Community Profiles
• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
• Ontario Plaques - Rama Indian Reserve

v t e Indigenous rights Rights Conflict resolution Cultural diversity Cultural heritage Freedom from forced assimilation Freedom from forced removal Freedom from racial discrimination Freedom of religion Gender equality Human rights Indigenous intellectual property Indigenous language Land rights Land-use planning Right to determine indigeneity Self-determination Traditional knowledge Governmental organizations Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Arctic Council Bureau of Indian Affairs Council of Indigenous Peoples Fundação Nacional do Índio National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (Philippines) United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Non-governmental and political organizations Amazon Watch Assembly of First Nations Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin Cultural Survival Friends of Peoples Close to Nature Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs National Indigenous Organization of Colombia Native American Rights Fund Survival International Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Zapatista Army of National Liberation (more ...) Issues Bantustan / Indian reservation / Indian reserve / Ranchería Civilizing mission Colonialism Cultural genocide Manifest destiny Postdevelopment theory Settler colonialism Legal representation Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 Historical cases 2009 Peruvian political crisis Chiapas conflict Depopulation of Diego Garcia High Arctic relocation Indian removal Mapuche conflict Oka Crisis Rubber boom San controversy Stolen Generations Category

Paul Revere
Portrait of Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley, c. 1768–70
Born	(1735-01-01)January 1, 1735 (O.S.: December 21, 1734) Boston (North End)
Died	May 10, 1818(1818-05-10) (aged 83) Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation	silversmith, colonial militia officer
Spouse	Sarah Orne (1757–73) (her death) Rachel Walker (1773–1813) (her death)
Children	8 with Sarah Orne (6 survived) 8 with Rachel Walker (5 survived)

Paul Revere (December 21, 1734 – May 10, 1818)^{[N 1]} was an American silversmith, early industrialist, and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Paul Revere's Ride."

Revere was a prosperous and prominent Boston silversmith, who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. Revere later served as a Massachusetts militia officer, though his service culminated after the Penobscot Expedition, one of the most disastrous campaigns of the American Revolutionary War, for which he was absolved of blame. Following the war, Revere returned to his silversmith trade and used the profits from his expanding business to finance his work in iron casting, bronze bell and cannon casting, and the forging of copper bolts and spikes. Finally in 1800 he became the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets for use as sheathing on naval vessels.

Early years[link]

Paul Revere was born in the North End of Boston on December 21, 1734, according to the Old Style calendar then in use, or January 1, 1735, in the modern calendar.^[1] His father, a French Huguenot born Apollos Rivoire, came to Boston at the age of 13 and was apprenticed to the silversmith John Coney.^[2] By the time he married Deborah Hitchborn, a member of a long-standing Boston family that owned a small shipping wharf, in 1729, Rivoire had anglicized his name to Paul Revere. Their son, Paul Revere, was the third of 12 children and eventually the eldest surviving son.^[3] Revere grew up in the environment of the extended Hitchborn family, and never learned his father's native language.^[4] At 13 he left school and became an apprentice to his father. The silversmith trade afforded him connections with a cross-section of Boston society, which would serve him well when he became active in the American Revolution.^[5] As for religion, although his father attended Puritan services, Revere was drawn to the Church of England.^[6] Revere eventually began attending the services of the political and provocative Jonathan Mayhew at the West Church.^[6] His father did not approve, and as a result father and son came to blows on one occasion. Revere relented and returned to his father's church, although he did become friends with Mayhew.^[7]

Revere's dentistry tools

His father died in 1754, and Paul was legally too young to officially be the master of the family silver shop.^[8] In February 1756, during the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War), he enlisted in the provincial army. Possibly he made this decision because of the weak economy, since army service promised consistent pay.^[9] Commissioned a second lieutenant in a provincial artillery regiment, he spent the summer at Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George in New York as part of an abortive plan for the capture of Fort St. Frédéric. He did not stay long in the army, but returned to Boston and assumed control of the silver shop in his own name. On August 4, 1757, he married Sarah Orne (1736–1773); their first child was born eight months later.^[10] He and Sarah had eight children, but three died young, and only one survived, Paul.^[11] Revere would later remarry.

1765–1774: the gathering storm of revolution[link]

Revere's business began to suffer when the British economy entered a recession in the years following the Seven Years' War, and declined further when the Stamp Act of 1765 resulted in a further downturn in the Massachusetts economy.^[12] Business was so poor that an attempt was made to attach his property in late 1765.^[13] To help make ends meet he even took up dentistry, a skill set he was taught by a practicing surgeon who lodged at a friend's house.^[14]

Although Revere was not one of the "Loyal Nine"—organizers of the earliest protests against the Stamp Act—he was well connected with its members, who were laborers and artisans.^[15] Revere did not participate in some of the more raucous protests, such as the attack on the home of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson.^[16] In 1765, a group of militants who would become known as the "Sons of Liberty" formed. Revere was one of them.^[17][18] From 1765 on, in support of the dissident cause, he produced engravings with political themes and other artifacts. Among these engravings are a depiction of the arrival of British troops in 1768 (which he termed "an insolent parade") and a famous depiction of the March 1770 Boston Massacre (see illustration). Although the latter was engraved by Revere and he included the inscription, "Engraved, Printed, & Sold by Paul Revere Boston", it was modeled on a drawing by Henry Pelham, and Revere's engraving of the drawing was colored by a third man and printed by a fourth.^[19] Revere also produced a bowl commemorating the Massachusetts assembly's refusal to retract the Massachusetts Circular Letter. (This letter, adopted in response to the 1767 Townshend Acts, called for united colonial action against the acts. King George III had issued a demand for its retraction.)^[19]

"The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th, 1770". Copper engraving by Paul Revere modeled on a drawing by Henry Pelham,^[20] 1770.

In 1770 Revere purchased a house on North Square in Boston's North End. Now a museum, the house provided space for his growing family while he continued to maintain his shop at nearby Clark's Wharf.^[21] Sarah died in 1773, and on October 10 of that year Revere married Rachel Walker (1745–1813). They had eight children, three of whom died young.^[22]

In November 1773 the merchant ship, Dartmouth arrived in Boston harbor carrying the first shipment of tea that would be subject to the taxes of the Tea Act. Revere and Warren, as members of the informal "North End Caucus", organized a watch over the Dartmouth to prevent the unloading of the tea. Revere took his turns on guard duty,^[23] and was one of the ringleaders in the Boston Tea Party of December 16, when colonists disguised as Indians dumped tea from the Dartmouth and two other ships into the harbor.^[24]

From December 1773 to November 1775, Revere served as a courier for the Boston Committee of Public Safety, traveling to New York and Philadelphia to report on the political unrest in Boston. Research has documented 18 such rides. Notice of some of them was published in Massachusetts newspapers, and British authorities received further intelligence of them from Loyalist Americans.^[25] In 1774, his cousin John on the island of Guernsey wrote to Paul that John had seen reports of Paul's role as an "express" (courier) in London newspapers.^[26]

In 1774, the military governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, dissolved the provincial assembly on orders from Britain. Governor Gage also closed the port of Boston and all over the city forced private citizens to quarter (provide lodging for) soldiers in their homes.^{[N 2]}

During this time, Revere and a group of 30 "mechanics" began meeting in secret at his favorite haunt, the Green Dragon, to coordinate the gathering and dissemination of intelligence by "watching the Movements of British Soldiers", as he would write in an account of his April 18, 1775 ride. Around this time Revere contributed engravings to the patriot monthly, Royal American Magazine.^[27][28]

He rode to Portsmouth, New Hampshire in December 1774 upon rumors of an impending landing of British troops there, a journey known in history as the Portsmouth Alarm. Although the rumors were false, his ride sparked a rebel success by provoking locals to raid Fort William and Mary, defended by just six soldiers, for its gunpowder supply.^[29]

"Midnight Ride"[link]

When British Army activity on April 7, 1775, suggested the possibility of troop movements, Joseph Warren sent Revere to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then sitting in Concord, the site of one of the larger caches of Patriot military supplies. After delivering the warning, Concord residents began moving the military supplies away from the town.^[30]

One week later, General Gage received instructions from Secretary of State William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, to disarm the rebels, who were known to have hidden weapons in Concord, among other locations, and to imprison the rebellion's leaders, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Dartmouth gave Gage considerable discretion in his commands.^[31][32] Gage issued orders to Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to proceed from Boston "with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy... all Military stores.... But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property." Gage did not issue written orders for the arrest of rebel leaders, as he feared doing so might spark an uprising.^[33]

Between 9 and 10 p.m. on the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes that the king's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safe, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Revere and Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.^[34][35]

In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River.^[36] Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charlestown. He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington, avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route. The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north.^[35][37]

Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route, many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"): His mission depended on secrecy, the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and most of the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly English in ethnic origin^[38]) still considered themselves British.^{[39] [40]} Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out."^[41] Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were spending the night with Hancock's relatives (in what is now called the Hancock-Clarke House), and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target.^[42] The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."^[35][43]

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by a British Army patrol in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord.^[35] Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; he eventually reached Concord. Dawes also escaped, though he fell off his horse not long after and did not complete the ride.^[44]

This Paul Revere Statue in North End, Boston was made by Cyrus Dallin and unveiled on September 22, 1940.

Revere was captured and questioned by the British soldiers at gunpoint. He told them of the army's movement from Boston, and that British army troops would be in some danger if they approached Lexington, because of the large number of hostile militia gathered there. He and other captives taken by the patrol were still escorted east toward Lexington, until about a half mile from Lexington they heard a gunshot. The British major demanded Revere explain the gunfire, and Revere replied it was a signal to "alarm the country". As the group drew closer to Lexington, the town bell began to clang rapidly, upon which one of the captives proclaimed to the British soldiers "The bell's a'ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!"^[45] The British soldiers gathered and decided not to press further towards Lexington but instead to free the prisoners and head back to warn their commanders.^[46] The British confiscated Revere's horse and rode off to warn the approaching army column. Revere walked to Rev. Jonas Clarke's house, where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green unfolded, Revere assisted John Hancock and his family in their escape from Lexington, helping to carry a trunk of Hancock's papers.^[47]

The ride of the three men triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm of September 1774. This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. In addition to other express riders delivering messages, bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires, and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town, notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston with possible hostile intentions. This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles (40 km) from Boston were aware of the army's movements while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge.^[48] Unlike in the Powder Alarm, the alarm raised by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops in Concord, after which the British were harried by the growing colonial militia all the way back to Boston.

War years[link]

Because Boston was besieged after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Revere could not return to the city, which was now firmly in British hands. He boarded in Watertown, where he was eventually joined by Rachel and most of his children (Paul Jr., then 15, remained in Boston to mind the family properties).^[49] After he was denied a commission in the Continental Army, he tried to find other ways to be useful to the rebel cause. He was retained by the provincial congress as a courier, and to print local currency, which the congress used to pay the troops around Boston.^[50]

A 12 pence bill printed by Revere in 1776

Since there was a desperate shortage of gunpowder, the provincial congress decided in November 1775 to send him to Philadelphia to study the working of the only powder mill in the colonies, in the hopes that he might be able to build a second one in Massachusetts. Revere called on the mill's owner, Oswald Eve, armed with a letter from Continental Congressmen Robert Morris and John Dickinson asking Eve to "Chearfully & from Public Spirited Motives give Mr. Revere such information as will inable him to Conduct the business on his return home."^[51][52] Eve showed Revere around the mill, but refused to give him detailed drawings unless he was first paid a substantial bribe. Despite this chilly reception, Revere was able to discern useful information from the visit. He also acquired, through the work of Samuel Adams, plans for another powder mill. This information enabled Revere to set up a powder mill at Stoughton (present-day Canton).^[51][53] The mill produced tons of gunpowder for the Patriot cause.^[54]

Revere's friend and compatriot Joseph Warren was killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.^[55] Because soldiers killed in battle were often buried in mass graves without ceremony, Warren's grave was unmarked. On March 21, 1776, several days after the British army left Boston, Revere, Warren's brothers, and a few friends went to the battlefield and found a grave containing two bodies.^{[citation needed]} After being buried for 10 months, Warren's face was unrecognizable, but Revere was able to identify Warren's body because he had placed a false tooth in Warren's mouth, and recognized the wire he had used for fastening it. Warren was given a proper funeral and reburied in a marked grave.^[56]

Militia service[link]

Upon returning to Boston in 1776, Revere was commissioned a major of infantry in the Massachusetts militia in that April, and transferred to the artillery a month later.^[57] In November he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was stationed at Castle William, defending Boston harbor. He was generally second or third in the chain of command, and on several occasions he was given command of the fort.^[57] He applied his engineering skills to maintaining the fort's armaments, even designing and building a caliper to accurately measure cannon balls and cannon bore holes.^[57] The service at Castle William was relatively isolated, and personality friction prompted some men to file complaints against Revere.^[58] The boredom was alleviated in late August 1777 when Revere was sent with a troop of soldiers to escort prisoners taken in the Battle of Bennington to Boston, where they were confined on board prison ships,^[59][60] and again in September when he was briefly deployed to Rhode Island.^[61]

In August 1778 Revere's regiment served in a combined Franco-American expedition whose objective was to capture the British base at Newport, Rhode Island.^[62] His regiment was responsible for erecting and maintaining artillery batteries on Aquidneck Island.^[63] The attempt was abandoned by the French when their fleet was scattered in a storm, and Revere's regiment returned to Boston before the British sortied from Newport to force the Battle of Rhode Island.

Penobscot disaster[link]

The British in June 1779 established a new base on Penobscot Bay in present-day Maine (which was then part of Massachusetts).^[64] Massachusetts authorities called out the militia, pressed into service available shipping, and organized a major expedition to dislodge the British.^[65] The expedition was a complete fiasco: its land and naval commanders could not agree on strategy or tactics, and the arrival of British reinforcements led to the destruction of the entire Massachusetts fleet.^[66] Revere commanded the artillery units for the expedition, and was responsible for organizing the artillery train.^[67] He participated in the taking of Bank's Island, from which artillery batteries could reach the British ships anchored before Fort George. He next oversaw the transport of the guns from Bank's Island to a new position on the heights of the Bagaduce Peninsula that commanded the fort. Although Revere was in favor of storming the fort, Brigadier General Solomon Lovell opted for a siege instead. After further inconsequential exchanges, and disagreements on how to proceed between Lovell and fleet commander Dudley Saltonstall, Lovell, a decision supported by Revere, decided to return to the transports on August 12.

Late the next day British sails were spotted. A mad scramble ensued, and on the 14th the fleet was in retreat heading up the Penobscot River. Revere and his men were put ashore with their stores, and their transports destroyed. At one point Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth ordered Revere to send his barge in an attempt to recover a ship drifting toward the enemy position. Revere at first resisted, but eventually complied, and Wadsworth told him to expect formal charges over the affair.^[68] The incident separated Revere from his men. Moving overland, he eventually managed to regroup most of his troops, and returned to Boston on August 26. A variety of charges were made against Revere, some of which were exaggerated assignments of blame^[69] made by enemies he had made in his command at Castle William. The initial hearings on the matter in September 1779 were inconclusive, but he was asked to resign his post.^[69] He repeatedly sought a full court martial to clear his name, but it was not until February 1782 that a court martial heard the issue, exonerating him.^[70][71]

Business and social connections[link]

During the Revolutionary War, Revere continued his efforts to move upwards in society into the gentry. After his failed efforts to become a military officer he attempted to become a merchant, but was hindered by a number of factors: while he was a fairly well-off member of the artisan class, he did not have the resources to afford the goods he would have sold as a merchant, nor were lenders in England willing to lend him the required startup capital. Other American merchants of the time collaborated with colleagues in England. However, Revere's inexperience as a merchant meant that he had not yet established such relationships and wasn’t able to communicate as effectively on unfamiliar matters. Another factor preventing Revere’s success as a merchant was the economic climate of the time period after the war known as the Critical Period; while the colonies had seen a time of economic growth before the war, the colonies experienced a severe post-war depression, constraining the overall success of his business.^[72]

While Revere struggled as a merchant, his success as a silversmith enabled him to pursue and leverage more advanced technological developments for the purposes of mass production. For example, flatting rolling mills greatly improved the productivity of his silver shop and enabled his business to move further away from manufacturing high-end customized products in order to focus instead on the production of a more standardized set of goods.^[73] In the 18th century, the standard of living continuously improved in America, as genteel goods became increasingly available to the masses.^[74] Revere responded particularly well to this trend because his business was not solely manufacturing custom, high end purchases. Rather, smaller products like teaspoons and buckles accounted for the majority of his work, allowing him to reach a wide audience with his works.^[75]

Revere's increased efficiency left financial and human resources available for the exploration of other products, which was essential to overcoming the fluctuating post-war economic climate.^[76] In addition to increasing production, the flatting mill enabled Revere to move towards a more managerial position.^[77] Artisans and other laborers were often unable to rise into the ranks of the gentry since they performed manual labor, in contrast with the gentry's higher emphasis upon intellectual work. But Revere's increasing product line and revenue stream allowed him to explore other materials and products, such as bell making, copper sheeting and creation of spikes, which opened even greater opportunities.

Later years: Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, and Politics[link]

1813 portrait of Revere by Gilbert Stuart

After the war, Revere opened a hardware and home goods store and later became interested in metal work beyond gold and silver. By 1788 he had invested some of the profits from his expanding silverworking trade in the construction of a large furnace. He soon opened an iron foundry in Boston's North End that produced utilitarian cast iron items such as stove backs and window weights, marketed to a broad segment of Boston's population.^[78] After mastering the iron casting process and realizing greater profits from this new product line, he identified a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening that followed the war. Beginning in 1792 he became one of America's best-known bell casters, working with sons Paul Jr. and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons. This firm cast the first bell made in Boston and ultimately produced hundreds of bells, a number of which remain in operation to this day.^[79]

In 1794, Revere decided to take the next step in the evolution of his business, again finding a novel use for his furnace that could create a new product line and reach another untapped market for manufactured goods. Revere expanded his bronze casting work by casting cannon for the federal government, state governments, and private clients. Although the government often had trouble paying him on time, its large orders inspired him to deepen his contracting and seek additional product lines of interest to the military.^[80] By 1795, a growing percentage of his foundry's business came from a new product, copper bolts, spikes, and other fittings that he sold to merchants and the Boston naval yard for ship construction. In 1801, Revere became a pioneer in the production of rolled copper, opening North America's first copper mill south of Boston in Canton. Copper from the Revere Copper Company was used to cover the original wooden dome of the Massachusetts State House in 1802. His copper and brass works eventually grew, through sale and corporate merger, into a large corporation, Revere Copper and Brass, Inc.^[81]

Revere remained politically active throughout his life. Revere's business plans in the late 1780s were often stymied by a shortage of adequate money in circulation. Alexander Hamilton's national policies regarding banks and industrialization exactly matched his dreams, and he became an ardent Federalist committed to building a robust economy and a powerful nation. He continued to participate in local discussions of political issues even after his retirement in 1811, and in 1814 circulated a petition offering the government the services of Boston's artisans in protecting Boston during the War of 1812.^[82] Revere died on May 10, 1818, at the age of 83, at his home on Charter Street in Boston.^[83] He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street.^[84]

Legacy[link]

Revere on 1958 U.S. stamp.

Paul Revere's grave site in the Granary Burying Ground

After Paul Revere's death, the family business was taken over by his oldest surviving son, Joseph Warren Revere.^[85] The copper works founded in 1801 continues today as the Revere Copper Company, with manufacturing divisions in Rome, New York and New Bedford, Massachusetts.^[86]

A 25-cent 1958 U.S. postage stamp in the Liberty Series honors Paul Revere, featuring the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. He also appears on the $5,000 Series EE U.S. Savings Bond.^[87]

Revere's original silverware, engravings, and other works are highly regarded today, and can be found on display in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston^[88] and other museums.

The communities of Revere, Massachusetts^[89] and Revere, Minnesota^[90] bear his name, as do Revere Beach^[89] in Revere, Massachusetts, Revere Avenue in The Bronx, New York City,^[91] and Paul Revere Road in Arlington Heights in Arlington, Massachusetts.^[92]

Ride[link]

In 1861, over 40 years after Revere's death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made the midnight ride the subject of his poem "Paul Revere's Ride," which opens:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year

Longfellow's poem is not historically accurate, but his "mistakes" were deliberate. He had researched the historical event, using such works as George Bancroft's History of the United States, but he manipulated the facts for poetic effect.^[93] He was purposely trying to create American legends, much as he did with works like The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).^[94] Longfellow was successful in creating a legend: Revere's stature rose significantly in the years following the poem's publication.^[95]

Parts of the ride route in Massachusetts are now posted with signs marked "Revere's Ride". The route follows Main Street in Charlestown, Broadway and Main Street in Somerville, Main Street and High Street in Medford, Medford Street to Arlington center, and Massachusetts Avenue the rest of the way through Lexington and into Lincoln. Revere's ride is reenacted annually.^[92]

See also[link]

• Israel Bissell, who rode to Philadelphia to warn the colonists there
• Sybil Ludington, who performed a similar ride in New York
• Jack Jouett, rode to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of a British raid
• Laura Secord, "Canada's Paul Revere" in the War of 1812
• Revere Bells, one of Revere's highest profile products
• Revere Copper Company, the business founded by Paul Revere and later managed by his son and grandsons
• Johnny Tremain, 1943 children's novel by Esther Forbes set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the Revolution

References[link]

Notes[link]

Citations[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Revere

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Revere, Paul". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Paul Revere Heritage Project
• The Paul Revere House
  • An interactive map showing the routes taken by Revere, Dawes, and Prescott
• Original copper engravings and other documents in collections of the Massachusetts State Archives
• Works by or about Paul Revere in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Revere Rolling Mill (about the endangered original Revere copper works site in Canton, MA)
• Booknotes interview with David Hackett Fischer on Paul Revere's Ride, July 17, 1994.

Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant in 2008
Born	February 20,[citation needed] 1972 Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Education	B.Comm; LLB
Alma mater	University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Religion	Judaism
Website
Ezra Levant

Ezra Isaac Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian media personality, conservative political activist and author. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, is a broadcaster and columnist for Sun Media and has written several books on politics and public policy.

Early life and education[link]

Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta.^[1] Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.

Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student.^[1] In 1992, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University.^[2] In 1994, he was featured in a Globe and Mail article on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant organized a debate between Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, and Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.^[1]

Levant gained a reputation as the university's leading conservative. He was invited to write a guest column for the Edmonton Journal and interviewed on television.^[3] He spent the summer of 1994 in Washington, D.C., in an internship arranged by the libertarian Charles G. Koch Foundation Summer Fellow Program. He worked for the Fraser Institute in 1995, writing Youthquake, which argued for smaller government, including privatization of the Canada Pension Plan. Levant saw "youthquake", the term he used to describe what he identified as a conservative youth movement of the 1990s, as similar to the 1960s civil rights movement except that instead of being enslaved by racism, his generation was "enslaved by debt" and, in order to liberate itself, society needed to dismantle elements such as trade unions, the minimum wage, universal health care, subsidized tuition and public pension plans.^[4]

Political activism[link]

Views on Quebec[link]

Levant favoured Quebec separatism and a yes vote during the 1995 Quebec referendum in a Calgary Sun column titled "10 Reasons to Hope for a Yes Victory"^[5] Among his 10 reasons were Levant's views that the departure of Quebec from Canadian confederation would lead to the elimination of bilingualism and multiculturalism, that it would give the Canadian government the "fortitude" to say no to "other special interest groups" such as First Nations and environmentalists; it would end corruption in Parliament, which Levant blamed on Quebec politicians, and clear the way for Preston Manning to become Prime Minister of Canada.^[6]

In 1996, Levant wrote a column saying that if the federal Liberals were re-elected, Alberta could separate from Canada making it "free from Quebec's demands."^[6]

Uniting the right[link]

In 1996, Levant worked with David Frum to organize the "Winds of Change" conference in Calgary, an early attempt to encourage the Reform Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to merge so that a united rightwing party could defeat the Liberal Party of Canada in the subsequent election.^[7] While unsuccessful, the conference anticipated future attempts at a Unite the Right movement which ultimately led to the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Levant supported Preston Manning's United Alternative initiative in 1999, a more advanced attempt to unite the country's conservative movement^[8] and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.^[9]

Political organizer and aide[link]

While he was a student-at-law, Levant was an active political organizer in the Reform Party, and guided the successful attempts by Rahim Jaffer (as the campaign manager for his nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona and later as his communications-director during the 1997 Federal Election) and Rob Anders to win party nominations.^[10] In 1997, he went to Ottawa to work for the Reform Party, becoming a parliamentary aide to party leader Preston Manning and being put in charge of Question Period strategy.^[6] Along with newly-elected MP's Rob Anders, Jason Kenney and Rahim Jaffer, Levant was part of an up and coming group of young Reformers which pundits dubbed the "Snack Pack" due to their relative youth.

In 1999, after being dismissed as Preston Manning's legislative-assistant, Levant left Ottawa to join the editorial board of the fledgling National Post newspaper in Toronto.^[9][11] A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic"^[12] and supported the elder Day in his successful attempt to defeat Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2001, he returned to Ottawa as communications director to Day.^[13] In May of that year he resigned after leaking to the National Post a letter that he sent to dissident MP Chuck Strahl in which he threatened to sue over Strahl's criticisms of his office.^[14][15][16]

Candidacy and resignation[link]

Later in 2001, Levant returned to Calgary to practice law. By February 2002 he had won the Canadian Alliance party nomination for the riding of Calgary Southwest,^[17] but stepped aside after public pressure so that new party leader Stephen Harper could run there in a 2002 by-election. When the by-election was called, Levant, who said he spent over $150,000 to gain the nomination,^[18] announced on March 28 that he would not step aside.^[12][19] Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.^[20]

Publishing[link]

In 2004 Levant co-founded the Western Standard, an Alberta-based magazine with an emphasis on Western Canada, political conservatism, and libertarianism.^[21] In October 2007 the magazine stopped publishing its print edition after failing to become profitable,^[22] becoming an online magazine. Levant later sold the publication's remaining assets to Matthew Johnson, the former legislative aide to Rahim Jaffer.^[23]

Levant wrote an irregular column for the Calgary Sun for ten years, until he was dropped in October 2007 because of "internal decisions."^[24] He continued to write occasional columns for the National Post on a freelance basis.^[25]

In 2010, Levant joined Sun Media a columnist and now has an on-air position on the Sun TV News Channel as host of The Source.^[26]

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy[link]

In February 2006, the Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons depicting Muhammad.^[27] Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities complained about the publication to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and a hearing was scheduled for January 2008. On the day of the hearing Levant republished the cartoons on his website.^[25]

At the request of Levant and his lawyers Levant was allowed to videotape his interview with Shirlene McGovern, a human rights investigator with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Levant later published that video on YouTube where it spent several days among the top-ten viewed videos. Soharwardy's complaint was ultimately withdrawn,^[28] and a complaint he filed with Calgary police came to naught. An identical complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council was dismissed by the Commission on August 5, 2008.

The timing of the Levant case was notable in that it coincided with a high-profile case considered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (which Levant has criticized), the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Human Rights Commission regarding complaints by the Canadian Islamic Congress about a column by Mark Steyn in Maclean's Magazine. None of the complaints obtained a ruling against Steyn or Maclean's.

Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission[link]

Levant is a fierce critic of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, particularly concerning Rev. Stephen Boissoin, who in the Lund v. Boissoin matter was fined $7,000 and banned from publicly "disparaging ... gays and lesbians" in May 2008. This case concerned a letter published by the Red Deer Advocate in 2002 in which Boissoin attacked the "homosexual agenda" as "wicked". In June 2008, Levant republished Boissoin's letter on his blog.^[29] When the AHRC dismissed the resulting complaint in November 2008, Levant accused the HRCs of religious discrimination, asserting that "100% of the CHRC's targets have been white, Christian or conservative" and that "It's legal for a Jew like me to publish [Boissoin’s letter]. It's illegal for a Christian like Rev. Boissoin to publish it."^[30] The HRC's ruling was overturned by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in 2009, on the grounds that Levant had the right to free speech.^[31]

Support and criticism[link]

Levant's case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada,^[32] the Canadian Association of Journalists,^[33] and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association^[34] — all of which have called for reform of the commissions. He has been featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN.^[35] Levant supported the Canadian government's decision to refuse George Galloway entry into Canada in March 2009. Although Levant described it as "an immigration matter", free speech advocates protested this move, citing it as a hypocritical double standard.^[36]

Ezra has been a frequent critic of Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, who is Muslim, calling him an "anti-Christian bigot".^[37][38]

Libel cases[link]

In 1988, Levant wrote a Reform Party fundraising letter in which he criticized Alberta Progressive Conservative Senator Ron Ghitter . Ghitter sued for defamation and in 2000, Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders and Levant admitted liability and issued a formal apology and undisclosed damages to settle the suit.^[39][40]

According to Levant, after the HRC cases against him were dismissed, "the most aggressive members of the human rights industry proceeded to punish [him] by filing over 20 law society complaints and five defamation suits against [him]. ... the point of all these lawsuits [is] just to bury [him] in an avalanche of paperwork and bills, to get [him] to shut up. So far, it ain't working."^[41]

The Law Society of Alberta had found that Levant violated the following rules of professional conduct: to “respect and uphold the law in personal conduct,” to “seek to improve the justice system,” to not “ act in a manner that might weaken public respect for the law,” to be “courteous and candid,” and to not “harass any person or discriminate against any person” on various prohibited grounds and ordered Levant to attend a "mandatory conduct advisory" after which the matter was dropped.^[42]

As a result of one lawsuit, Levant was ordered to pay $25,000 to Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer, for libelling him with "reckless indifference" in his blog. Justice Robert Smith ruled that Levant "spoke in reckless disregard of the truth and for an ulterior purpose of denormalizing the Human Rights Commission across Canada which makes his statements malicious in that sense" and ordered Levant to remove the libellous materials from his blog.^[43]

Lawyer Richard Warman is also suing Levant as well as Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals and several other conservative bloggers for libel over statements made about Warman on Free Dominion.^[44] Levant says this "lawsuit isn't logical, or serious. It's a nuisance suit."^[45]

Levant is also being sued by Warren Kinsella for libel, asking for $5,000,000. Levant has called Kinsella's suit "laughable".^[46]

George Soros[link]

In September 2010, Levant wrote a column for Sun Media accusing George Soros of funding avaaz.org, a group lobbying to stop Sun Media being granted a license for Sun TV News Channel, and strongly attacking Soros's character and history by alleging that as a child he collaborated with the Nazis.^[47] Soros threatened to sue Sun Media for libel^[47] and on September 18, Sun Media issued a retraction and apology to Soros.^[48]

Recent activities[link]

In July 2008, Levant was invited to be a witness before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus "about the threat posed by radical Islam using Western legal mechanisms as weapons".^[49]

From 2009 until 2010, Levant worked as a lobbyist for Rothman's Incorporated, a manufacturer and distributor of tobacco products.^[50]

In March 2010, Levant accompanied U.S. conservative personality Ann Coulter on a Canadian speaking tour. Her speech at the University of Ottawa was canceled at the last minute, apparently by its organizers, because of what Levant called "physical danger to Coulter and the audience" from protesters. The Ottawa Police later disputed any claims of unrest or violence.^[51][52][53]

Ethical Oil[link]

In September 2010, Levant published a book, Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands, arguing a moral case for developing the Athabasca oil sands rather than importing oil from nations with bad records concerning human rights and the environment.^[54] The book was the winner of the 2011 National Business Book Award, awarded on May 12, 2011 in Toronto.

Sun Media[link]

Levant hosts The Source, an evening talk show host on the Sun News Network and writes a regular column for the Sun Media chain of newspapers.^[55]

CBC opponent[link]

Sun Media, owned by Quebecor, has also systematically opposed funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, led by Levant and Brian Lilley.^[56]

Books[link]

• Youthquake. Fraser Institute. 1996. ISBN 0-88975-167-6. 
• Fight Kyoto: The plan to protect our economy. Essence Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1-55306-546-8. 
• The War On Fun. Western Standard. 2005. ISBN 0-9739541-0-8. 
• Shakedown: How our government is undermining democracy in the name of human rights. McLelland & Stewart. 2009. ISBN 0-7710-4618-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=Cf10fE2hP4cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=shakedown+levant#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands. McLelland & Stewart. 2010. ISBN 0-7710-4641-3. 
• The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr. McLelland & Stewart. 2011. ISBN 0-7710-4621-9. 

Notes[link]