1. Objective: To examine how the battles at Lexington and Concord and the start of the American Revolution.

2. British Gen. Thomas Gage
Lexington and Concord
• British General Thomas Gage marched to Concord, MA, in order to seize a large supply of arms stored by the minutemen.
Plans were also made to arrest Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
British Gen. Thomas Gage

3. Two lanterns were hung from the Old North Church to let the Sons of Liberty know that the British were moving towards Concord by sea.
Founded in 1723, the Old North Church is the oldest church in Boston

4. Paul Revere’s Ride
by, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1860
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.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower, as a signal light, -- One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up and to arm."
Want to read the rest of the poem? Click here!

5. • The Sons of Liberty discovered the plot so they sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn the countryside of the arrival of the British army.

6. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

7. • On the way to Concord, a brief battle ensued in Lexington, in which 8 colonists were killed.

8. "The battle of Lexington, April 19th. 1775. Plate I
"The battle of Lexington, April 19th Plate I." Hand colored engraving. Published Amos Doolittle (engraver) and Ralph Earl (artist).

9. • In Concord, Gen. Gage found no weapons.
However, waiting minutemen killed 73 British soldiers.
Schoolhouse Rock - No More Kings (3:00)
Liberty’s Kids: "The Shot Heard Round the World“ (10:51)
Minuteman statue Concord, Massachusetts