The Midnight Ride

From Fifty Famous People, by James Baldwin

This story is from Fifty Famous People, a collection by American author James Baldwin published in the early 1900s. It retells the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere in April 1775, when he warned colonial farmers that British soldiers were marching to seize their gunpowder. The ride helped spark the Revolutionary War, America's fight for independence. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Baldwin's retelling introduces young readers to a moment of courage that changed history.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readers, about 6 to 8

Length

medium · about 513 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Fifty Famous People: A Book of Short Stories, James Baldwin · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.