Johnny Tremain is a work of historical fiction written in 1943 by Esther Forbes that is set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. Intended for teen-aged readers, the novel's themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice, human rights, and the growing tension between Patriots and Loyalists as conflict nears. Events depicted in the novel include the Boston Tea Party, the British blockade of the Port of Boston, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
The book won the 1944 Newbery Medal and was believed to be "among the 20 best-selling children's books of the 20th century." It was estimated to be the 16th-bestselling children's paperback book as of the year 2001 in the United States, according to Publishers Weekly. In 1957, Walt Disney Pictures released a film adaptation, also called Johnny Tremain.
Contents
Plot summary
Johnny Tremain is a promising but prideful 14-year-old silversmith apprentice at the Boston silversmith shop of elderly Ephraim Lapham. The date is on July 23, 1773. It is understood that someday Johnny will marry Mr. Lapham's granddaughter Priscilla (Cilla) to keep the shop within the Lapham family. The shop receives a challenging and urgent order from wealthy merchant John Hancock to make a silver dish to replace one that Mr. Lapham fashioned decades before. While preparing Hancock's order, Johnny's hand is badly burned when Dove, another apprentice resentful of Johnny, deliberately gives him a cracked crucible that leaks molten silver. Johnny's hand is burned and crippled beyond use, and he can no longer be a silversmith or do most things. Johnny's youthful pride is crushed by the injury. He is relegated to work as an unskilled errand boy. He goes to find a new job that will accept his crippled hand.
After a series of rejections, Johnny reaches the low point of his young life. While searching for jobs, he encounters in a printshop Rab Silsbee, a young typesetter who is friendly to him. He then decides to turn to Mr. Lyte, a wealthy Boston merchant. Johnny explains that his mother told him that he and Mr. Lyte are related and as a last resort, to turn to him for help. Lyte requests the proof, and Johnny shows him a silver cup with the Lyte family's crest. Lyte says it was stolen from him in a burglary, and Johnny is accused of the theft and arrested. Eventually, Johnny is freed by the court after Rab brings Cilla to court and she testifies that Johnny showed her his cup before the burglary ever took place.
Johnny settles into a job delivering a weekly newspaper, the Boston Observer. The Observer is a Whig publication, and Johnny is introduced to the larger world of pre-revolutionary Boston politics by Rab. Johnny learns to ride and care for Goblin, a beautiful but skittish horse used to make deliveries. He moves in with Rab in the attic of the newspaper's shop.
As months pass and tension between Whigs and Tories rises, Johnny becomes a dedicated Whig. He matures and re-evaluates many personal relationships, including that with Cilla, who becomes a trusted friend and fellow Whig. Johnny and Rab participate in the Boston Tea Party, in which patriot colonists throw a shipload of tea into the harbor rather than allow the ship's owner to unload the tea and pay a tax imposed by Parliament without the consent of the people of Britain's American colonies. In retaliation, Britain sends an army of Redcoats to occupy Boston and closes the port, inflicting hardship upon the inhabitants of this commercial and trading town. Rab decides to leave the Observer and become a soldier, taking with him a musket that Johnny acquired for him. At the end of the book, Johnny meets and talks briefly with his friend one last time: Facing the British, Rab has been mortally wounded in battle. No longer needing the musket, Rab returns it to Johnny with a stoic smile. A Patriot doctor offers to perform surgery to fix Johnny's hand so he can fire the gun against the Redcoats, and the story ends with Johnny's acceptance of the offer.
Characters
The novel features both fictional and historical characters.
Fictional
Johnny Tremain: The story's protagonist. Born Jonathan Lyte Tremain, he is a likable but cocky young teenager, a talented apprentice silversmith indentured at the age of 12 to Ephraim Lapham for seven years. Johnny was born in a convent in France. He returned with his mother Lavinia "Vinny" Lyte Tremain to Townsend, Maine, when she was certain she would no longer be recognized as a Lyte. Because his right hand is badly injured by molten silver, he is forced to seek another trade.
Rab Silsbee: Johnny's first true friend and role model. He is two years older than Johnny, taller, more mature, resourceful, brave, and admired, especially by Johnny. He does not mind Johnny's crippled hand. He introduces Johnny to the politics of Boston, where he is a member of the Sons of Liberty. He treats Cilla kindly, but mostly to tease Johnny. Rab is a Silsbee, known for their dignified aloof reserve, but a fervent, well-spoken Patriot. Rab drills with the Minutemen of Lexington and takes part in the Battle of Lexington where he is mortally wounded.
Priscilla "Cilla" Lapham: Priscilla Lapham is slightly younger than Johnny. Unlike her older sisters, she is petite and a blossoming beauty. Before Johnny's accident, it is arranged that she and Johnny will marry. Over time, Cilla and Johnny developed a genuine love for each other. She is Mrs. Lapham's third daughter.
Isannah "Izzy" Lapham: The youngest daughter of Mrs. Lapham, Isannah is a beautiful but frail child of nine who needs close caring for at all times. Once-sweet Isannah is beloved by her older sister, Cilla, but eventually becomes selfish and vain, with a reputation for parroting other's words and not being an independent thinker. Isannah's golden-haired, brown-eyed beauty attracts a great deal of attention, most significantly from Lavinia Lyte. Lavinia takes Isannah as her protege and introduces her to high society, separating her from her family and their working class way of life.
Ephraim Lapham: A British silversmith, and Johnny's master at the beginning of the novel. Mr. Lapham is pious and kind, but old, frail, and no longer the master smith of his youth. He dies soon after Johnny leaves his apprenticeship.
Mr. Percival Tweedie: A 40-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, who becomes Mr. Lapham's business partner after Johnny's accident. Mr. Tweedie is a "queer" man, unliked by many. Johnny calls him a "Squeak-Pig".
Historical
Whigs
Samuel Adams: Political leader of the Revolutionary forces. He wrote numerous pamphlets inciting and inspiring the revolution.
John Hancock: One of the wealthiest men in Boston and a leader of the Whigs. Johnny's hand is disfigured while making a silver basin for him.
Doctor Joseph Warren: One of the leaders of the Whigs in Boston. In the novel's climax, he is shown preparing to operate on scar tissue in Johnny's disfigured hand. Foreshadowing indicates that the operation will be a success, allowing Johnny to enlist in the rebel army.
Paul Revere: The best silversmith in Boston and an important Whig, known to American history for his midnight ride to caution the Minutemen of approaching British soldiers. He warns the Americans that the British are marching toward them, and they made a "target practice" for them at Lexington.
James Otis, Jr.: A lawyer and architect of the ideals of the American Revolution; his career was shortened by bouts of insanity caused after being beaten about the head by a British soldier. In the novel, Otis inspires the Whig leaders to fight for the rights of all people, not just Americans. He warns that some will give their lives, foreshadowing the death of Rab.
Josiah Quincy II: The young lawyer and member of the Sons of Liberty who defends Johnny in court when accused of theft by the Lytes.
Doctor Benjamin Church: a physician ally of Samuel Adams.
British officers and colonial officials
Governor Thomas Hutchinson: The governor of Massachusetts prior to the occupation by the British army.
Thomas Gage: British General and military governor of Boston during the occupation.
In Popular Culture
The Family Guy references this novel, specifically Johnny Tremaine by name, in a seldomly caught reference.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews wrote, "This is delightful reading, but at the close it seems to leave less sense of substance and permanence than her best work (Paradise and Paul Revere), but to me it was more satisfying than The General's Lady or Mirror for Witches." Common Sense Media said that "this sweeping tale of redcoats and revolutionaries has a lot to offer" and remarked, "Forbes, a historian, writes with detail and precision, imbuing historical events with life and passion that is often lacking in textbooks."
Similar characters in other media
Another Johnny Tremaine (note the different spelling of the surname) was a different fictional character played by Rod Cameron in the 1949 Republic Pictures film Brimstone, written by Thames Williamson and Norman S. Hall. This second Tremaine was a U.S. Marshal who goes undercover to stop a cattle-smuggling ring. The release of Brimstone followed the awarding of the Newbery prize to the novel Johnny Tremain, but preceded the release of the 1957 film Johnny Tremain by Disney.