Once her indenture was complete upon turning 18-years-old, Sampson made ends meet while working as a local school teacher and weaver. ![]() She learned to sew, read and write as a young girl while forced to live with distant relatives and work as a servant after her father left the family destitute. For seven years, patriots of the new country waged a bloody war for the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.ĭeborah Sampson (1760-1827) was a Revolutionary War soldier who posed as a man under the alias Robert Shurtleff to fight in George Washington's Continental Armyĭeborah Sampson was the eldest of seven siblings, born in 1760 to an impoverished family in Plympton, Massachusetts. Philip Mead, Director of the Museum of the American Revolution told the New York Times: ‘Deb Sampson, her story is mostly lost to history…So, finding a little piece of it is even more important than finding another piece of George Washington’s history.’įollowing years of growing unrest and tension between the thirteen colonies and the authoritative crown of Great Britain, combat officially kicked off at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Sampson’s role in the Revolutionary War is often lost in the large brush strokes of history, but the recent discovery of a 200-year-old diary written by Abner Weston, her neighbor in the small Massachusetts community has refined the focus of her gallantry during the American Revolution. Born into poverty and abandoned by her father, Sampson was forced into indentured servitude before she took up her musket and marched into history. The American Revolution has finally come to claim Deborah Sampson, the brave woman who at age 21 - sewed her own uniform and disguised herself as a man to join George Washington’s fight for independence from Great Britain.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |