Johnny Tremain

Originally published in 1943, Esther Forbes’s Johnny Tremain is a classic middle-grade historical fiction/adventure novel. After a prideful accident ends 14-year-old Johnny Tremain’s promising career as a silversmith, his search for a new trade leads to his direct involvement in the early events of the American Revolution. The novel won a Newbery Medal and explores themes of self-sacrifice, humility, and change. Citations in this study guide refer to the 2018 eBook edition released by Houghton Mifflin.

Content Warning: The novel contains mentions of wartime violence, slavery, racism, ableism, brief offensive language, and the stereotypical and harmful impersonation of Indigenous people.

Plot Summary

Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain is an apprentice silversmith living in Boston and training under Mr. Lapham. Mr. Lapham has four granddaughters, and he wants Johnny to marry Cilla, the second youngest, and inherit the family business. Although he is training for a craft, Johnny is related to a family of wealthy merchants called the Lytes, which he proves to Cilla by showing her a silver cup with the Lyte crest. Johnny is excessively proud of his smithing skills and bullies his fellow apprentices, Dove and Dusty. After a wealthy client orders a sugar basin from Mr. Lapham, Johnny defies his master’s wishes by working on the basin on a Sunday. Dove deliberately gives Johnny a cracked crucible, and Johnny burns his right hand. No longer able to pursue his dream of becoming a master silversmith, Johnny looks for a new job that he can perform even with his injured hand. During his search, he meets Rab, a printer’s apprentice who comforts him by listening to his story. However, Johnny’s feelings of isolation and desolation return when Isannah, the youngest of the Lapham girls, says cruel things about his injured hand.

Johnny goes to see Mr. Lyte, but the merchant is dismissive toward the boy until Johnny mentions the silver cup with the Lyte crest. He asks Johnny to bring the cup to him that night. Rab warns Johnny that Mr. Lyte is not to be trusted, but Johnny goes to Lytes’ house anyway, where he is arrested on the false charge of stealing the cup. Rab, one of the rebellious Sons of Liberty, arranges for Josiah Quincy to defend Johnny in court and brings Cilla and Isannah to plead on his behalf. The judge dismisses the case against Johnny and returns his silver cup to him. Isannah and Johnny reconcile. Quincy warns Johnny that Mr. Lyte is now Johnny’s mortal enemy, but the boy tries to sell the merchant his silver cup two days after the trial. Mr. Lyte steals the cup and tries to have Johnny shipped out of Boston, but he manages to escape.

Johnny takes refuge at the printing office where Rab works, and Rab’s uncle gives him a job delivering papers. Johnny learns how to ride a horse, becomes more interested in politics, and settles into his new life. One day, he sees Cilla and Isannah while he is delivering papers and promises to meet them in the town square every Thursday and Sunday afternoon, but he rarely keeps this promise because he is increasingly wrapped up in the political intrigue of his new life. A secret society of rebel leaders called the Boston Observers meet in the printing office’s loft. Johnny and Rab participate in the Boston Tea Party, in which American colonists protest British taxation by dumping three shiploads of tea from the East India Company into the harbor.

England punishes Boston for the Tea Party by passing the Port Act, which closes the city’s harbors to all vessels except for British warships and transports. Sympathizers on both sides of the Atlantic ensure that the people of Boston do not starve. British soldiers fill the city in the spring and summer of 1774. Meanwhile, Johnny, who is now 15 years old, looks back on his old life with the Laphams with a more open and forgiving eye. He even reconciles with Dove, who is fired from the silversmith shop and becomes a British officer’s horse boy. Cilla’s life is also changing. She and Isannah move in with the Lytes, but Johnny is troubled to see that Mr. Lyte’s daughter, Lavinia, treats Cilla like a servant.

Tensions continue to rise between those who sympathize with the British and those who favor rebellion. A mob chases the Lytes out of their summer house in Milton because the wealthy family supports British rule. Johnny accompanies Cilla back to the house so she can gather the Lytes’ silver. She urges Johnny to take back the cup that rightfully belongs to him, but the boy no longer wants anything to do with the Lyte family. During the final meeting of the Boston Observers, Sam Adams and James Otis speak powerfully about the need for war and sacrifice for the sake of liberty.

Paul Revere organizes a network of spies to monitor the British army, and Johnny helps him prevent an attack on Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth in December. The following spring, Johnny helps a kindly British private desert from the army, but the private is captured and executed. In April, Rab leaves Boston to join the Lexington militia. Thanks to information from Dove, Johnny can warn the rebellion’s leaders that the British are preparing to strike at Lexington and Concord. On April 19, the American Revolutionary War begins as the first shots are fired at Lexington.

Later that day, the Lytes prepare to flee to London with Isannah in tow. Mr. Lyte now understands that Johnny truly is his relative, so the boy will be eligible to inherit some property after the war. Johnny disguises himself in the deceased British private’s uniform. Knowing that he may die, he kisses Cilla goodbye before he leaves Boston. Rab is fatally wounded in the Battle of Lexington. Before he dies, he gives Johnny his musket. A doctor offers to perform surgery on Johnny’s right hand that would allow him to fight in the war. Johnny readily accepts this offer, determined to take his departed friend’s place in the fight for freedom.