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In Boston, men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock kept the colonists in a constant state of anger over British rule. In the surrounding countryside, groups of colonists got ready to fight.
They stored gunpowder and other supplies in Concord, a village northwest of Boston. On April 18, 1775, British soldiers quietly marched out of Boston. Colonial leaders thought the soldiers meant to take Concord’s military supplies. Riders Paul Revere and William Dawes took separate routes to tell people in the countryside the British were coming. Revere stopped in Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock that the British might be looking for them. When the British got to Lexington on April 19, the minutemen were waiting. As the two groups faced off, a shot rang out. No one knows for sure who fired. It was called “the shot heard ’round the world.” The American Revolution had begun!
