You know Paul Revere.
Of course you do; Longfellow (and textbook printers) saw to that.
"Listen, my children, and you shall hear..."
A hundred and fifty years of American kids have memorized that poem. But here's a name you almost certainly don't know.
Jack Jouett.
On the night of June 3, 1781, a 26-year-old Virginian was asleep at his father's tavern when British cavalry came thundering past on the road. This wasn’t just any cavalry… this was Banastre Tarleton, riding hard for Charlottesville, where the entire Virginia legislature had fled after Richmond fell.
Among them was the governor. One Thomas Jefferson.
Jouett did the math in about ten seconds, and determined that Tarleton was going to inflict serious harm. The road was wide open, and no one knew they were coming. They had a straight shot for a surprise attack on Virginia’s most important men.
Unless someone could get there first.
So off he went.
He had forty miles to cover, but he had to stay off the main roads to avoid being seen.
He traveled by moonlight through woods and barely used trails. He traveled all night.
He arrived at Monticello at 4:30 in the morning, and found Jefferson already up and working in his garden.
With the governor alerted, he headed into town to warn the rest of the General Assembly. He even personally escorted a wounded general to safety.
Jefferson got out. In fact, almost the whole Virginia government got out.
All just minutes ahead of Bloody Tarleton.
(It’s said that Jefferson tarried so long in his garden that the British arrived on his lawn mere minutes after he left!)
That’s right. Without one tavern-keeper's light-sleeping son, the British very likely would have captured or killed the sitting governor and most of the legislature of Virginia in a single morning.
The country we live in would look a lot different today if that had happened.
So why does every kid know Revere and almost nobody knows Jouett?
It's not that Revere did something bigger—really, you could argue Jouett's ride mattered more—it's just that one of them got set to verse and stamped into the curriculum, and the other got a single day on the Virginia calendar.
We don’t even have any paintings of Jack Jouett!
Just this silhouette made by his son Matthew.
And here’s the thing that this story should remind us:
The "standard" version of history isn't the true version; it's the marketed version—the story that got a poem, a textbook contract, and a committee's approval. Whole shelves of real, brave, consequential people just quietly fall out of the story, not because they didn't matter, but because nobody was assigned to remember them.
We hand kids that thin, pre-approved slice of truth and tell them they’ve "learned history."
It’s a travesty.
That's the whole reason we do the work we do.
Not to give your kids a new set of names to memorize for a test, but to teach them that history is made of actual people making hard decisions under real pressure, and that the official story always leaves someone out.
We want them to ask the kinds of questions Jouett's ride forces you to think about: who else am I not being told about? What else do I not know?
That's a pretty powerful perspective to give a child.
You’ve likely already got our award-winning America’s History Volumes 1 & 2, but if you’ve been waiting to grab them, now is the perfect time because they’re on sale.
And in case you missed it, you can pre-order our much-anticipated third volume today!
This one covers the years 1791-1849. When the American experiment finally gets to stand on its own and the ideas the Founders debated and fought for are finally put to the test. (Spoiler: Some of the framers of our founding documents were the first to break their own rules!)
We start shipping America’s History Volume 3 at the end of the month, so orders will start arriving just in time for America’s 250th birthday. The timing is perfect!
You're already the kind of parent who reads about a forgotten hero and thinks, my kids should know this! That instinct and commitment is why you’re getting this email in the first place. All we do is build resources that make doing what you’re already doing a little bit easier.
I guess I should confess. I lied before.
Jack Jouett did get a poem. It’s just that it was written anonymously and only printed in 1909 in the Charlottesville Daily Press.
Maybe we can make it famous:
Hearken good people: awhile abide
And hear of stout Jack Jouett’s ride;
How he rushed his steed, nor stopped nor stayed
Till he warned the people of Tarleton’s raid.
The moment his warning note was rehearsed
The State Assembly was quickly dispersed.
In their haste to escape, they did not stop
Until they had crossed the mountain top.
And upon the other side come down.
To resume their sessions in Staunton Town.
His parting steed he spurred,
In haste to carry the warning
To that greatest statesman of any age,
The Immortal Monticello Sage.
Here goes to thee, Jack Jouett!
Lord keep thy memory green;
You made the greatest ride, sir,
That ever yet was seen.
— Connor
