[Ads-l] Paul Revere Quote

[Joel Berson]

My intuition tells me that Revere is more likely to have said "The Regulars are coming" or "coming out" than "The British are coming."  The British troops in Boston were I think commonly referred to as "regulars", perhaps because that term referred to the "standing army" that the colonials were so antagonistic to, especially when imposed on their soil.  Of course this does not identify a source for Fred, but perhaps searches for "the regulars are coming" phrase may turn up something "the British are coming" does not.

I see that Wikipedia agrees with me that Fischer's "Paul Revere's Ride" is the preeminent source on its subject.

Joel

      From: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2017 2:03 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Paul Revere Quote
   
The Paul Revere Wikipedia entry specifies the exclamation "The
Regulars are coming out" and the supporting references given are
certainly worth examining. Yet, there is still an interesting cultural
question of when the version with "The British are coming! the British
are coming!" emerged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere

[Begin Wikipedia excerpt]
. . . most of the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly
English in ethnic origin)[44] still considered themselves
British.[45][46] Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of
the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming
out."

Revere, Paul (1961). Paul Revere's Three Accounts of His Famous Ride.
Introduction by Edmund Morgan. Boston: Massachusetts Historical
Society. ISBN 978-0-9619999-0-2.

Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's ride. New York: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-508847-6. This work is extensively
footnoted, and contains a voluminous list of primary resources
concerning all aspects of the Revere's ride and the battles at
Lexington and Concord.
[End Wikipedia excerpt]

Here is an 1851 citation with 'The British are coming! the British are
coming!' I do not think Paul Revere was mentioned in this tale. Also,
the 1853 citation I gave previously was based on a memory of the War
of 1812, I think.

https://books.google.com/books?id=ll03AQAAMAAJ&q=%22British+are%22#v=snippet&

Date: April 1851
Periodical: The Republic
Volume 1, Number 4
Article: The Tory and his Sister [as told be the old corporal]:
A Life Scene of the Revolution
Author: Thomas H. Whitney

[Begin excerpt]
On receiving the information from poor Debby, who was almost
frightened to death, he left her with his mother, and ran to the
quarters of the colonel, crying, as he went, 'The British are coming!
the British are coming!' and thus the whole town was set in commotion
in an instant, and the people thrown into a panic of consternation.
The frightful atrocities that had before been committed upon peaceful
villages, by the hirelings of the crown, had implanted a dread in the
hearts of the patriots, and the startling cry, 'The British coming,'
was a signal of horror to the defenceless people.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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