George Robert Twelves Hewes Response Paper We’ve all heard, read, and learned about the first great Americans to step foot on the New World like John Adams, John Hancock, and even the great Paul Revere, but have you’ve ever stopped and wondered about the commoners during this period of time. What happened to their stories? Did they not count? Why, because they were poor? But George Hewes changed the perspective of many historians and inspired them to write biographies of Hewes; a simple poor shoemaker. You might be asking yourselves how did a simple commoner turn to be a somebody in society, that eventually for a long period of time Americans paid tribute to. George Robert Hewes was born in August 25, 1742, in Boston. In the beginning of …show more content…
Suddenly in 1749 Hewes’ father died of a stroke leaving a single mother and five kids with nothing but debts. (574) As a child Hewes was often punished and eventually moved around between relatives. The pain that Hewes suffered as a child made him quit the opposite as he grew older, he became generous and helped others that were in trouble. For instance, he stood up for those who had no one in the world and were being treated wrong. Hewes’ childhood was radical and perhaps one of the saddest childhoods any child could possibly live. Hewes education consisted of minimum reading and writing skill due to his family’s money problems. In 1755 Hewes mother died leaving him and his four brothers in charge of there grandfather but due to their lack of luck or destiny perhaps a year later their grandfather died. Leaving the five Hewes orphans with £15 to split among themselves. (574) Even though, Hewes did have distant relatives they weren’t able to do much for him because they struggled just as much as Hewes. Due to the lack of money and land Hewes was ranked in the “lower” trade and Hewes became a shoemaker because his family couldn’t afford the fee that would allow him to enter the higher trades. (574) Even if Hewes family had