der the distant control of the British king. Revere, like many of his fellow citizens, heard the debates about unjust taxation in which they had no say. He may not have understood the finer points of the argument, but he saw clearly the impact of British attempts to control and regulate colonial trade.
He became a Freemason, a member of the secret fraternal society that included many local leaders, and was one of the first to join the Sons of Liberty, one of the most important groups that eventually led the call to break away from England's rule. His greatest contributions to the support of the debate were the engravings he made, caricaturing the pomposity and tyranny of the times. These engravings, the political cartoons of their day, were especially effective in swaying public opinion. As Bernard Bailyn points out, "However great the political skill and however powerful the intellects of a people's leaders, they can only act within the scope of the people's ex
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