Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes

The British are coming. One if by land, two if by sea.

In Medford, I awaked the Captain of the Minute Men; & after that, I alarmed almost every house, till I got to Lexington.

Liberty or death was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English.

The British are coming, the British are coming! Mr. President! We need the National Guard! We need as many men as you can spare because we are killing the Patriots! So call the dogs off! Send the National Guard, please! They need emergency help! Please! Help!

The last person to get across that town in under three hours was yelling "The British are coming! The British are coming!"

I descend from both Philadelphia Quakers and Carolina colonists whose families were separated by the Revolutionary War. That helped give me insight into the agony of Patriots who, until the British government denied their claims, had always, like Ben Franklin himself, thought of themselves as free-born Englishmen.

Fairfax was incredibly important to the shaping of the country.

When I read that the British army had landed thirty-two thousand troops - and I had realized, not very long before, that Philadelphia only had thirty thousand people in it - it practically lifted me out of my chair.

In a series of articles beginning on Oct. 2, 1966, I wrote about the long-forgotten history of the Liberty Tree. To call attention to how obscure the site had become, I interviewed waitresses at the Essex Delicatessen below the plaque on Washington Street. None knew what the Liberty Tree was.

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

United American Colonies

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurl'd, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.

It is my opinion that General Washington’s influence will do more than all the Assemblies upon the Continent. I always thought him exceeding popular; but in many places he is little less than adored; and universally admired. His influence in this Country might possibly effect something great.

There were more Americans in the British Army during the Revolution than there were in the American Army.

The taverns were the headquarters of the American Revolution.

The American Revolution was a conservative revolution.

If Paul Revere were on his ride today, he would be tweeting.

United Colonies

The American Revolution was as much a civil war as a revolution.

The origins of the two republics are so much alike that the history of one seems but a transcript of the other: so that every Dutchman instructed in the subject must pronounce the American Revolution just and necessary … an action which has been approved and applauded by mankind and justified by the decision of Heaven …

The American War must immediately appear to you a subject of historical curiosity. By the event of that war, an independent empire has arisen, boundless in extent, and removed from the reach of the arms---secure at least from the invasions of Europe; beginning its career with such ad-vantages as our communities in the old world never possessed; beginning almost from the point to which they have but arrived in the progress of nearly two thousand years.

The American Revolution produced two new countries—The United States and Canada

My great-grandfather fought with the Colonial Army in New England in the American Revolution.

American government did not originate in any abstract theories about liberty and equality, but in the actual experience gained by generation after generation of English colonists in managing their own political affairs. The Revolution did not make a breach in the continuity of their institutional life.

If you grew up in Boston, you actually grew up thinking that Patriots' Day is a major American holiday, sort of like the other Fourth of July.