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In Boston, men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock kept the colonists in a constant state of agitation against British rule. In the surrounding countryside, groups of armed colonists prepared to fight if necessary.
They stored gunpowder and other supplies in Concord, a village northwest of Boston. On the night of April 18, 1775, British soldiers quietly marched out of Boston. Colonial leaders assumed they were going to Concord to seize military supplies. Riders Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent on separate routes to spread the word throughout the countryside. Revere stopped in Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock that the British might be looking for them. When the British arrived in Lexington on April 19, the minutemen were waiting for them. As the two groups faced each other, a shot rang out. No one knows for certain which side fired it. It was called “the shot heard ’round the world.” The American Revolution had begun!
