Where does the phrase “The British are coming” originate from? I’ve seen it mentioned a few times in different places.
Well, it’s generally attributed to Paul Revere during his famous ride before the battles of Concord and Lexington, but it’s really up for debate whether he actually said those particular words. It’s more folklore than anything else.
The story of Revere’s ride gets most of its cultural impetus from a poem by Longfellow. There’s a short essay here dealing with the historical accuracy (or otherwise) of the poem.
It’s attributed to Paul Revere during the American Revolution. He was meant to go from Boston to Lexington to warn Samuels Adams if, you know, the British were coming.
Most historians accept that he did not actually shout it, as the woods were filled with British spies and a reasonable number of residents of both Boston and Lexington were still loyalists at that point, so they almost certainly used a code phrase to warn the leaders of the revolution that British troops were advancing on the area.
On preview: What they said.
Beaten to it by previous posters, but as to its ubiquity…
While not accurate it has become part of the universal folklore surrounding the American Revolution in the U.S. thanks to many a TV and popular literature reference aimed at young kids. It’s probably safe to say that if you grew up in the U.S. in the latter half of the twentieth century, you heard/learned the phrase.
At the Minute Man National Park they teach Revere said some variation of “The Regulars are coming out”. So in agreement with Wikipedia.
The phrase might have been well known to American schoolchildren going back to Longfellow’s poem, in the 19th Century. I’m just guessing.
A variant of this phrase is, “the Redcoats are coming.” It makes a great funny line in the film Dr. Strangelove when General Ripper, trying to motivate Group Captain Mandrake during the heat of battle, forgets the nationality of the person he’s talking to.
I always thought the phrase arose because, due to the noted British reticence, it’s hard to tell sometimes.
I remember it got used in the entertainment world when a British film won an Oscar…
but we never did put Hollywood out of business! :eek:
I hope this is pointing out the obvious, but Paul Revere made his famous ride before the revolution. All of the colonists were British. Everyone would be very confused if he rode down the street yelling “We are coming!” "We are coming!"It’s more likely that he didn’t ride through the street yelling anything. It is more likely that he quietly tapped on somone’s window who send two riders out to tap on someone’s window to send two riders out…
It was actually Lonnie Donegan that said it.
I’m guessing the exclamation that the Brits are on the way with the implication they are about to kick some ass and burn some towns is not unique to the American Revolution. So, the phrase ‘The British are coming!’ or some variant of that has probably been shrieked by natives from Scotland to India for centuries. We just wrote a nice poem about it. 
-XT
There are a couple of good popular books on Lexington and Concord that deal with the Boston night riders who whet out to alert the colonial leadership and the militia commanders that a British raid was afoot. Revere’s job was to go to Lexington and warn Sam Adams and John Hancock, who were staying at the parsonage there. In route he did notify militia commanders before arriving at Lexington and after, until his capture by a British mounted patrol sent out explicitly to interdict messengers. There were numerous other messengers and a regular network of dispatch riders but the poem gave Paul all the popular credit.
If there was a phrase used to rouse the Mass. Bay Militia it was “Turn out, turn out. The Regulars are out.” By the time the riders reached their destination however, the community had already been alerted by the ringing of church bells (alarms in the night), the firing of muskets and signal fires on hill tops.
The Minute Men, incidentally, were a hold-over from the quick reaction force organized to deal with Indian raids during the French and Indian Wars – a segment of the local militia pledged to report on thirty minutes notice fully armed and equipped to pursue marauding war parties. These were the guys who first assembled on Lexington Green several hours before the British column arrived.
One irony in the whole thing is that both the Minute Men at Lexington and the militia at Concord and during the British retreat back to Charlestown were armed by the Crown. The Rebels had essentially the same arms as the British Regulars they opposed.
Even then most people would have understood that “The British” meant, well, the British. The majority of the population were born in the colonies and never had ben to Britain. There was the nationality of “American” before there was the actual nation to go along with it.
*Listen my children, while I pause,
And tell you the story of William Dawes… *
Longfellow’s poem doesn’t use the phrase.
Just lie back and think of New England.