For Teachers

The ‘Long s’: Why do some ‘s’ letters look like ‘f’ in old documents?

What first appears to the modern eye like a lowercase ‘f’ is actually an ancient form of the letter ‘s’ – known as the ‘long s’ or the ‘medial s.’ If you look closely you will see that the bar going across the ‘stem’ of the letter shape does not go all the way across it like in an ‘f’ – instead it is only present on the left side of the vertical piece. The ‘long s’ originated as a letter in Roman cursive and migrated to Old English and thus into modern English and other Romance languages. It was used as the lowercase form of ‘s’ until the 1100s when the shape of the capital ‘S’ (known as the ‘round s’) began to be used in lowercase forms as well.

Around the 1400s new rules for usage evolved so that the ‘long s’ was used at the start of lowercase words OR in the middle of a word, and generally, but not always, the ‘round s’ was used at the end of words.

When the printing press was invented and letters had to be created out of pieces of metal in order to produce printed documents the ‘long s’ was often used in what is known as a ligature, two or more letters represented together in a single piece of type so they appear joined on the page. Because sets of type and the drawers or cases created to hold them near printing presses were expensive to produce and lasted a long time, the ‘long s’ persisted longer in typed documents than in handwritten cursive ones.

The shift away from including the ‘long s’ generally happened earlier in the United States than in Europe, but it still took about a century, from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, especially in printed documents. The convention of using the ‘long s’ that lasted the longest was in the first ‘s’ of the double ‘ss’ at the end of a word.

Can you see any of these patterns of use or declining use, in either the handwritten or printed documents on this website?

What’s the difference between a primary and secondary source?

A primary source is one written or spoken by a person who experienced an event firsthand. For example, a letter written to a friend about a parade the writer attended is a primary source. A secondary source is one that speaks about an event, but the author didn’t experience it firsthand. For example, a description of the parade in an encyclopedia entry describing the history of parades.

Do you have other resources I can look up?

Yes! See below for a bibliography of other texts we recommend.

For younger readers

Fritz, Jean, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? Coward-McCann, 1973. A whimsical, yet accurate portrait of Paul Revere.

Lawson, Robert, Mr. Revere and I. Dell Publishing Co., 1953. Historical fiction. Paul’s ride as told by his horse. Highly inaccurate (Revere didn’t even own a horse at the time of the Revolution) but a fun read.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Illustrated by Christopher Bing. Handprint Books, 2001. Includes excellent maps, well-researched drawings, and the text of primary sources.

Rinaldi, Ann, The Secret of Sarah Revere. Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995. Historical fiction from the point of view of Paul’s thirteen-year-old daughter, imagining her being smitten with Patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren.

For Upper Elementary and Junior High

Edwards, Ben L., One April in Boston. Spyglass Books, LLC, 2020. The story of one family’s gift passed down from the time of the American Revolution. Includes an accurate account of Paul Revere’s midnight ride. Written by a Revere relative.

Forbes, Esther, Johnny Tremain. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943. A historical novel that takes place in Boston at the time of the Revolution. Paul Revere appears in the book but is not the central character. Details of daily life in colonial Boston and of Revolutionary events are portrayed authentically.

Forbes, Esther, America’s Paul Revere. Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Illustrated picture book using text from Esther Forbes’s Paul Revere and the World He Lived In.

Sullivan, George, In Their Own Words: Paul Revere. Scholastic, 1999. A good overview of Revere’s life that quotes from primary sources and includes many illustrations.

For Older Readers and Teachers

Brigham, Clarence S., Paul Revere’s Engravings. American Antiquarian Society, 1969. Includes color facsimiles of all of Revere’s famous political cartoons.

Buker, George E. The Penobscot Expedition — Commodore Saltonstall and the Massachusetts Conspiracy of 1779, 2002.

Fischer, David Hackett, Paul Revere’s Ride. Oxford University Press, 1994.

Forbes, Esther, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1942, 1969.

Greenburg, Michael M., The Court-Martial of Paul Revere — A Son of Liberty & America’s Forgotten Military Disaster. University Press of New England. 2014.

Goss, Elbridge Henry, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere. Two Volumes. Boston: Joseph George Cupples, Publisher, 1891. Antiquarian-style biography, quotes many documents in full.

Leehey, Patrick M., What Was the Name of Paul Revere’s Horse: Twenty Questions About Paul Revere – Asked and Answered. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 2019.

Martello, Robert, Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn — Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Paul Revere’s Boston: 1735-1818. Museum of Fine Arts, 1975.

Paul Revere’s Three Accounts of His Famous Ride. Massachusetts Historical Society, 1968. Copies of Revere’s three handwritten accounts of the ride with transcriptions, the Longfellow poem, and an excellent introduction to the primary sources.

Paul Revere-Artisan, Businessman and Patriot: The Man Behind the Myth. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 1988.

Steblecki, Edith J., Paul Revere and Freemasonry. Paul Revere Memorial Association, 1985.

Tourtellot, Arthur B., Lexington and Concord. Norton, 1963.

Triber, Jayne E., A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere. University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.