Dear Humans,

Today we’ll read “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Revere’s ride (along with the rides of many others to warn of the British attack) took place in April of 1775. But Longfellow wrote his poem 85 years later in 1860. So even though the poem was about Paul Revere (with many liberties), it was also just as much about the looming Civil War.

History always works this way. People say that we just ought to look at the facts of history. But “facts” isn’t part of the word history; “story,” however, is. And the way the North re-remembered Paul Revere’s ride on the eve of the Civil War is part of that story.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt