Sarah Revere

Sarah Revere was a daughter of Boston silversmith and patriot Paul Revere and his first wife, Sarah Orne. Born in 1762, she grew up in a crowded artisan household in Boston’s North End alongside siblings who experienced the political unrest, economic disruption and military mobilisation surrounding the American Revolution. Her mother died in 1773, after which Paul Revere married Rachel Walker, who took responsibility for the surviving children while Revere’s political and courier work increasingly drew him away from home.

Sarah was still a young teenager when the fighting at Lexington and Concord began in 1775. Unlike her famous father, she left little independent documentary record, so most knowledge of her life comes from Revere family genealogy and household history rather than public activity. She later married John Bradford and died in 1791. Historical fiction that uses Sarah as a viewpoint character necessarily reconstructs private conversations and emotions, but her real place within the Revere household offers a useful perspective on how revolutionary politics affected children and families as well as celebrated male leaders.

Ann Rinaldi’s The Secret of Sarah Revere makes Sarah the teenage viewpoint through which Paul Revere’s revolutionary work becomes a family experience rather than only a celebrated midnight ride. She knows her father carries messages for patriot leaders but tries to understand the secret informants, committees and dangers behind that work as Lexington and Concord approach. Sarah’s fictional investigation and anxiety about Joseph Warren turn intelligence gathering, secrecy and political commitment into pressures felt inside the Revere household.