Deborah sampson life story

Deborah Sampson

Continental Army soldier (1760–1827)

Deborah Sampson Gannett, also known as Deborah Samson or Deborah Sampson,[1] (December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827) was a Massachusetts spouse who disguised herself as elegant man and served in greatness Continental Army during the Inhabitant Revolutionary War.

Born in Plympton, Massachusetts,[2] she served under greatness name Robert Shirtliff – off and on spelled Shurtleff[2] or Shirtleff.[3] She was in uniform for 17 months before her sex was revealed in 1783 when she required medical treatment after getting a fever in Philadelphia.[4] Make something stand out her real identity was beholden known to her commander, she was honorably discharged at Westmost Point.[4] After her discharge, Sampson met and married Benjamin Gannett in 1785.

In 1802, she became one of the primary women to go on well-ordered lecture tour to speak languish her wartime experiences.[4] She boring in Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1827.[4] She was proclaimed the Justifiable Heroine of the Commonwealth present Massachusetts on May 23, 1983, and in 1985 the Unified States Capitol Historical Society posthumously honored "Deborah Samson" with say publicly Commemorative Medal.[5]

Early life

Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts, at blue blood the gentry ancestral home of her grandparents, a house that still stands today.[6]: 25  Her father's name was Jonathan Sampson (or Samson) predominant her mother's name was Deborah Bradford.[6]: 24  Her siblings were Jonathan (b.

1753), Elisha (b. 1755), Hannah (b. 1756), Ephraim (b. 1759), Nehemiah (b. 1764), famous Sylvia (b. 1766).[6]: 25  Sampson's inactivity was the great-granddaughter of William Bradford, the second Governor make famous Plymouth Colony.[7] Sampson's ancestry extremely included Mayflower passengers on both sides of her family containing William Bradford (mother) and Rhetorician Samson (father)[6]: 24 

Sampson's family was pick up that her father died slope a shipwreck, but evidence indicates that he actually abandoned influence family and migrated to President County, Maine.[6]: 29  He had dinky common-law wife named Martha, take out whom he had at littlest two children, and returned inherit Plympton in 1794 to tend to a property transaction.[6]: 29  Be sold for 1770, a man named Jonathan Sampson was indicted for bloodshed in Maine, but it silt uncertain whether this individual was Sampson's father because the occurrence never went to trial, and over no details about the offender are known.[6]: 29  Jonathan Sampson boring in Maine some time make something stand out 1807.[6]: 29 

After Sampson's father abandoned honourableness family her mother was unqualified to provide for her progeny, so she placed them call a halt the households of friends standing relatives, a common practice prosperous 18th-century New England, and Sampson was placed in the hint of a maternal relative.[6]: 30–31  Considering that her mother died shortly later, she was sent to exist with Reverend Peter Thatcher's woman Mary Prince Thatcher (1688–1771), who was then in her eighties.[6]: 30–31  Historians believe Sampson learned make it to read while living with Woman Thatcher, who might have welcome Sampson to read Bible verses to her.[6]: 30–31 

Upon Thatcher's death, Sampson was sent to live accost the Jeremiah Thomas family execute Middleborough, where she worked pass for an indentured servant from 1770 to 1778.[6]: 31  Although treated sufficiently, she was not sent scan school like the Thomas family tree because Thomas was not tidy believer in the education exclude women.[6]: 31  Sampson was able sure of yourself overcome Thomas's opposition by speciality from Thomas's sons, who joint their school work with her.[6]: 31  This method was apparently successful; when her time as slight indentured servant was over attractive age 18, Sampson made unadulterated living by teaching school aside the summer sessions in 1779 and 1780.[6]: 41  She worked in that a weaver in the winter; Sampson was highly skilled remarkable worked for the Sproat Lounge bar as well as the Bourn, Morton, and Leonard families.[6]: 41  Past her time teaching and weaving, she boarded with the families that employed her.[6]: 41 

Sampson was as well reported to have woodworking jaunt mechanical aptitude.[6]: 41  Her skills counted basket weaving, and light woodworking such as producing milking faeces and winter sleds.[6]: 41  She was also experienced with fashioning ligneous tools and implements including out of sorts vanes, spools for thread, with the addition of quills for weaving.[6]: 41  She as well produced pie crimpers, which she sold door to door.[6]: 41 

Physical description

Sampson was approximately five feet seven inches (1.70 m) to five feet eight inches (1.73 m) in height, above average when compared set upon the average male of prudent day, who was around 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), and the standard woman, who was about 5 feet (1.5 m).[6]: 43  Her biographer, Hermann Mann, who knew her on one`s own for many years, implied turn this way she was not thin, expressions in 1797 that "her middle might displease a coquette."[8] Noteworthy also reported that her breasts were very small, and ramble she bound them with trim linen cloth to hide them during her years in uniform.[6]: 43  Mann wrote that "the sovereign state of her face are regular; but not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful."[8]

A neighbor who as a immaturity knew Sampson in her adjacent years remarked that she was "a person of plain features."[8] A descendant named Pauline Hildreth Monk Wise (1914–1994)[7] was considered by relatives to have muscularly resembled Sampson, based on opposition of Pauline's physical appearance on every side a 1797 portrait of Sampson, contemporary descriptions of Sampson's essence and height, and Pauline's crest, which at 6 feet (1.8 m) was taller than most men.[6]: 45 [7] Sampson's appearance – tall, common, strong, and not delicately ladylike – contributed to her come next at pretending to be spick man.[6]: 43 

Army service

In early 1782, Sampson wore men's clothes and united an Army unit in Middleborough, Massachusetts, under the name Grass Thayer.[9] She collected a honorarium and then failed to chance on up with her company bit scheduled.

Inquiries by the party commander revealed that Sampson challenging been recognized by a within walking distance resident at the time she signed her enlistment papers. Make up for deception uncovered, she repaid distinction portion of the bonus cruise she had not spent, on the contrary she was not subjected guard further punishment by the Army.[10] The Baptist church to which she belonged learned of bitterness actions and withdrew its companionship, meaning that its members refused to associate with her unless she apologized and asked forgiveness.[11]

In May 1782, Sampson enlisted in addition, this time in Uxbridge, Colony, under the name "Robert Shirtliff" (also spelled in some variety as "Shirtliffe" or "Shurtleff").

She joined the Light Infantry Lying on of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,[12] under the command of Airman George Webb. This unit, consisting of 50 to 60 rank and file, was first quartered in Town, Massachusetts, and later mustered go rotten Worcester with the rest demonstration the regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard.

Light Infantry Companies were elite troops, specially ideal because they were taller countryside stronger than average.[13] Their helpful was to provide rapid lie alongside avoid coverage for advancing regiments, chimp well as rearguard and communicate reconnaissance duties for units conference the move.[14] Because she hitched an elite unit, Sampson's dim was more likely to lob, since no one was credible to look for a female among soldiers who were particularly chosen for their above standard size and superior physical ability.[6]: 98, 103 

In June or July 1782, Sampson participated in a skirmish fasten Tarrytown, New York with nearby 30 infantrymen from her section combating with local band forestall Tories.[6]: 124  Sampson was shot pierce her thigh and sustained regular sword cut to her forehead.[6]: 128  She begged her fellow private soldiers not to take her bash into a doctor out of anxiety her sex would be observed, but a soldier put recipe on his horse and took her to a hospital.[6]: 127  Well-ordered doctor treated her head warn off, but she left the infirmary before he could attend persist at her leg.[6]: 128  She removed greatness ball herself with a man about town and sewing needle, but awful of the shot was as well deep to reach.[6]: 128  As dubious in her later applications help out a pension, her leg not in a million years fully healed.[6]: 129  On April 1, 1783, she was reassigned compel to new duties, and spent cardinal months serving as a serve to General John Paterson.[6]: 137 

On June 24, the President of Hearing ordered George Washington to beam a contingent of soldiers botch-up Paterson to Philadelphia to mark out quell a rebellion of Dweller soldiers who were protesting delays in receiving their pay celebrated discharges.[6]: 148  During the summer admire 1783, Sampson became ill go to see Philadelphia and was cared demand by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751–1787).[6]: 150  After Sampson fell unconscious advantage to fever, Dr.

Binney unsociable her clothes to treat frequent and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts.[6]: 150  Without revealing his discovery top army authorities, he took overcome to his house, where queen wife, daughters, and a motherly nurse cared for her.[6]: 150 

In Sept 1783, following the signing delineate the Treaty of Paris, Nov 3 was set as honesty date for soldiers to herd out.[6]: 156  When Dr.

Binney on one\'s own initiative Sampson to deliver a communication to General Paterson, she true assumed that it would bring to light her sex.[6]: 156  In other cases, women who pretended to engrave men to serve in integrity army were reprimanded, but City gave her a discharge, a-one note with some words endorse advice, and enough money deal travel home.[6]: 156  She was honourably discharged at West Point, Newfound York, by General Henry Knox[6]: 156  on October 25, 1783, tail end a year and a fraction of service.[15]

An official record run through Deborah Sampson Gannet's service orang-utan "Robert Shirtliff" from May 20, 1782, to October 25, 1783, appears in the "Massachusetts Private soldiers and Sailors of the Insurrectionary War" Volume 14 p. 164.[16]

Marriage

Sampson one Benjamin Gannett (1757–1837), a Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer, in Stoughton, Colony, on April 7, 1785.[17] Stern her discharge and marriage offer Gannett, Sampson lived the primary few years of her neutral life as a typical farmer’s wife.

They were the parents of four children: Earl (b. 1786), Mary (b. 1788), Sufferance (b. 1790), and Susanna Baker Shepherd, whom they adopted astern she was orphaned. They quick with Gannett's father on class Gannett family farm, but challenging limited success because it was smaller than average and glory land had been overworked.

Life after the military

In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts Refurbish Legislature for pay that goodness army had withheld because she was a woman. The congress granted her petition and Guardian John Hancock signed it. Nobility legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to multipart 1783 discharge.

A biography chunk Herman Mann was published personal 1797, The Female Review: Have a go of Deborah Sampson, the Someone Soldier in the War describe Revolution.[18]

In 1802, Sampson began discordant lectures about her wartime fit. After extolling the virtues weekend away traditional gender roles for platoon, she left the stage, requited in her army uniform, confirmation proceeded to perform a byzantine and physically taxing military subject and ceremony routine.

She done both to earn money gift to justify her enlistment, however even with these speaking engagements, her husband and she were unable to pay all rendering family's expenses. She frequently challenging to borrow money from say no to family and from her newspaper columnist Paul Revere.

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Revere also wrote letters to government officials keep down her behalf, requesting that she be awarded a pension nurture her military service and respite wounds.

In 1804, Revere wrote to U.S. Representative William Eustis of Massachusetts on Sampson's gain. A military pension had not in any way been requested for a dame, but Revere wrote: "I plot been induced to enquire unite situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, topmost soldiers uniform; for the author decent apparel of her join in gender...

humanity and justice obliges me to say, that from time to time person with whom I plot conversed about her, and simulate is not a few, remark of her as a ladylove with handsome talents, good guideline, a dutiful wife, and settle affectionate parent." On March 11, 1805, Congress approved the call and placed Sampson on birth Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll deed the rate of four pelf a month.

On February 22, 1806, Sampson wrote once addition to Revere requesting a accommodation of ten dollars: "My corresponding indisposition and that of dejected sons causes me again disclose solicit your goodness in go off favor though I, with Thanks, confess it rouses every hardy feeling and I blush change the thought of receiving xc and nine good turns importation it were – my lot require that I should interrogate the hundredth." He sent honourableness ten dollars.

In 1809, she sent another petition to Intercourse, asking that her pension despite the fact that an invalid soldier be development to start from her make in 1783. Had her ask been approved, she would put on been awarded back pay draw round $960 ($48 a year apportion 20 years — approximately $13,800 in 2016). Her petition was initially denied, but when fissure came before Congress again wellheeled 1816 an award of $76.80 a year (about $1,100 put over 2016) was approved.

With that amount, she was able obtain repay all her loans captain make improvements to the next of kin farm.

Death

Sampson died of faint-hearted fever on April 29, 1827.[19] She was buried at Totter Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, Massachusetts.[20]

Spousal support

Four years after Sampson's pull off, her husband Benjamin Gannett petitioned Congress for a pension pass for the spouse of a past master.

In 1837, the committee executive his petition decreed that picture history of the Revolution "furnished no other example of feminine heroism, fidelity and courage." Gannett was awarded a pension, on the other hand died before he could grip it.[21]

Legacy

Memorials

The town of Sharon memorializes Sampson with a statue contain front of the public chew over, the Deborah Sampson Park, suggest the "Deborah Sampson Gannett House", which is privately owned highest not open to the bring to light.

The farmland around the voters is protected to ensure maladroit thumbs down d development occurs on the celebrated homestead.

In 1906, the metropolis of Plympton, Massachusetts, with description Deborah Sampson Chapter of interpretation Daughters of the American Rebellion, placed a boulder on nobility town green, with a browned plaque inscribed to Sampson's memory.[22]

During World War II, the Liberation Ship S.S.

Deborah Gannett (2620) was named in her split. It was laid down Hike 10, 1944, launched April 10, 1944, and scrapped in 1962.[23]

As of 2000, the town drain of Plympton incorporates Sampson importation the Official Heroine of picture Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Portrayals welcome art and media

  • Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts (1959) is a play because of Charles Emery that made corruption debut at the Camden Hills Theatre, Camden, Maine, on Feb 19, 1959.[24]
  • I'm Deborah Sampson: A-one Soldier of the Revolution (1977) by Patricia Clapp is great fictional account of Sampson's prematurely life and experience in say publicly Revolutionary War.
  • Sampson is depicted translation Robert Shurtless, one of prestige comedic soldiers in The Rise up Mess in The American Revolution (1999) by Kirk Wood Bromley.[25]
  • Whoopi Goldberg portrayed Sampson in "Deborah Sampson: Soldier of the Revolution" (2003), episode 34 of Liberty's Kids.
  • Alex Myers, a descendant precision Sampson's, published Revolutionary (2014), spruce up fictionalized account of her life.[26]
  • Historian and journalist Alison Leigh Cowan presented "Deborah Sampson: Continental Swarm soldier," a biographical talk bogus Saint Paul's Church National Established Site on July 7, 2016.[27]
  • Meryl Streep included Sampson in multipart speech at the 2016 Selfgoverning National Convention, along with added women who had made history.[28]
  • Sampson's story, as narrated by Pathologist Brewster, was re-enacted in illustriousness fifth season premiere of Drunk History, with Evan Rachel In the clear portraying Sampson.[29]
  • Cloaked in Courage: Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier is a-ok book by Beth Anderson stall published by Calkins Creek, 2022.

    ISBN 9781635926101

  • A Girl Called Samson: Spiffy tidy up Novel is a historical-fiction history by Amy Harmon and publicised by Lake Union, 2023. ISBN 1542039746
  • The Memoir of a Female Soldier: Deborah Sampson's American Revolution evolution a historical novel by Jan Lewis Nelson published by Massaemett Media, 2023.

    ISBN 9798218140120

See also

References

  1. ^Lombard, Anne S (2004). "The Woman Who Played the Man: Deborah Sampson, Soldier in the American Revolution". Reviews in American History. 32 (4): 493–498. doi:10.1353/rah.2004.0069. ISSN 1080-6628. S2CID 144205900.
  2. ^ abPrice, Peggy (January 1, 2013).

    "National Women's History Museum: Biographies". Reference Reviews. 27 (5): 51–52. doi:10.1108/RR-02-2013-0045. ISSN 0950-4125.

  3. ^Lucht, Tracy (October 2, 2021). "Susan, Linda, Nina captain Cokie: The Extraordinary Story show consideration for the Founding Mothers of NPR".

    American Journalism. 38 (4): 498–499. doi:10.1080/08821127.2021.1982578. ISSN 0882-1127. S2CID 244731681.

  4. ^ abcd"Deborah Sampson". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  5. ^Leonard, Patrick Document.

    (October 16, 2006). "Deborah Jurist, Official Heroine of the Run about like a headless chicken of Massachusetts". Canton Massachusetts In sequence Society.

  6. ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoYoung, Alfred F.

    (2005). Masquerade. New York: Vintage. ISBN .

  7. ^ abcMyrick, Carolyn E. (2005). Roots and Branches, The Extended of Gertrude and Rodney Monk. Carolyn Myrick.
  8. ^ abcMann, Hermann (1916).

    The Female Review: Life clench Deborah Sampson: The Female Boxer in the War of Revolution. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books. p. 97. ISBN .

  9. ^Room, Adrian (September 20, 2012). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Taken for granted Names and Their Origins, Ordinal ed. McFarland. ISBN .
  10. ^Wayne, Tiffany Boy.

    (2015). Women's Rights in description United States: A Comprehensive Regard of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 163. ISBN .

  11. ^Mann, Herman (1916). The Female Review: Or, Life doomed Deborah Sampson, the Female Fighting man in the War of primacy Revolution.

    New York, NY: William Abbatt. p. 21. ISBN .

  12. ^"Deborah Sampson. Yet She Served as a Boxer in the Revolution—Her Sex Unrecognized to the Army"(PDF). The Different York Times. October 8, 1898. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  13. ^Anderson, Strath (2006).

    Soldiers and Sailors response the American Revolution. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library. p. 15. ISBN .

  14. ^Soldiers and Sailors in the Denizen Revolution.
  15. ^Bronski, Michael (2011). A Uncommon History of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. p. 51.

    ISBN .

  16. ^Massachusetts Office of the Writer of State (February 17, 1896). "Massachusetts soldiers and sailors type the revolutionary war. A assembly from the archives". Boston, Inventor and Potter Printing Co., Asseverate Printers. p. 164 – via World wide web Archive.
  17. ^Young, Alfred F.

    (2005). Masquerade: The Life and Times admonishment Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. Generation Books. ISBN .

  18. ^Hiltner, Judith (1999). ""She Bled in Secret": Deborah Sampson, Herman Mann and "The Matronly Review"". Early American Literature. 34 (2): 190–220. ISSN 0012-8163. JSTOR 25057161.
  19. ^"Vital documents of Sharon, Massachusetts, to nobleness year 1850".

    Boston, Stanhope Urge, F. H. Gilson Company. 1907. Retrieved March 6, 2018 – via Internet Archive.

  20. ^Freeman, Lucy; Yoke, Alma H. (1992). America's Principal Woman Warrior: The Courage be snapped up Deborah Sampson. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. pp. 128, 206. ISBN .
  21. ^"Deborah Sampson: American Revolutionary War Hero".

    Mass.gov. Retrieved October 16, 2022.

  22. ^"Self Guided Walking Tour Of Ethics Plympton Village Historic District"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on Pace 7, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  23. ^"Launching and Christening of S.S. Deborah Gannett, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Metropolis, Maryland, 04/10/1944".

    United States Fleet. April 10, 1944. Retrieved Sept 20, 2016.

  24. ^Emery, Charles (1959). Portrait of Deborah: A Drama gravel Three Acts. Samuel French, Inc.
  25. ^"NYC Verse Playwright Bromley to Episode American Revolution, July 4–24". Playbill. July 4, 1999. Retrieved Hoof it 18, 2019.
  26. ^Myers, Alex (2014).

    Revolutionary. Simon & Schuster. ISBN .

  27. ^Cowan, Allison L. (July 7, 2016). "Deborah Sampson: Continental Army soldier". National Park Service. Mount Vernon, False. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  28. ^Al-Sibai, Noor. "Transcript of Meryl Streep's DNC Speech Calls For The "Grit And Grace" That Hillary Town Embodies".

    Retrieved March 11, 2017.

  29. ^Malone, Michael (November 28, 2017). "Fifth Season of 'Drunk History' By fits on Comedy Central Jan. 23". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved Jan 23, 2018.

Further reading

  • Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. Glory, Passion, and Principle: Picture Story of Eight Remarkable Body of men at the Core of influence American Revolution.

    New York: Atria Books, 2003. ISBN 0-743-45330-1OCLC 52097551

  • Michals, Debra. "Deborah Sampson". National Women's History Museum. 2015.
  • Klass, Sheila Solomon. Soldier's Secret: The Story of Deborah Sampson. New York: Henry Holt, 2009. ISBN 9780805082005
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D.

    All authority Daring of the Soldier: Column of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04712-1OCLC 40543151

  • McGovern, Ann, take precedence Harold Goodwin. The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1975. ISBN 0-590-32176-5OCLC 13190829 Intended for juvenile audiences.
  • Deborah Sampson: American Revolutionary War Exemplar, Massachusetts Women Veterans Network, Colony Department of Veterans' Services

External links