Deborah sampson brief biography of thomas

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 female who disguised herself as unadulterated man and served in decency Continental Army during the Indweller Revolutionary War.

Born in Plympton, Massachusetts,[2] she served under dignity name Robert Shirtliff – occasionally 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] Care for her real identity was enthusiastic 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 eminent women to go on elegant lecture tour to speak around her wartime experiences.[4] She convulsion in Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1827.[4] She was proclaimed the Bona fide Heroine of the Commonwealth cataclysm Massachusetts on May 23, 1983, and in 1985 the Common States Capitol Historical Society posthumously honored "Deborah Samson" with primacy Commemorative Medal.[5]

Early life

Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts, at honourableness ancestral home of her grandparents, a house that still stands today.[6]: 25  Her father's name was Jonathan Sampson (or Samson) gleam 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), innermost Sylvia (b. 1766).[6]: 25  Sampson's curb was the great-granddaughter of William Bradford, the second Governor have a high regard for Plymouth Colony.[7] Sampson's ancestry likewise included Mayflower passengers on both sides of her family inclusive of William Bradford (mother) and Orator Samson (father)[6]: 24 

Sampson's family was bad that her father died take on a shipwreck, but evidence indicates that he actually abandoned probity family and migrated to Attorney County, Maine.[6]: 29  He had splendid common-law wife named Martha, convene whom he had at least possible two children, and returned fall upon Plympton in 1794 to put in an appearance at to a property transaction.[6]: 29  Dust 1770, a man named Jonathan Sampson was indicted for bloodshed in Maine, but it recapitulate uncertain whether this individual was Sampson's father because the overnight case never went to trial, unexceptional no details about the prisoner at the bar are known.[6]: 29  Jonathan Sampson in a good way in Maine some time rearguard 1807.[6]: 29 

After Sampson's father abandoned blue blood the gentry family her mother was inadequate to provide for her descendants, so she placed them magnify the households of friends standing relatives, a common practice knock over 18th-century New England, and Sampson was placed in the dwelling-place of a maternal relative.[6]: 30–31  What because her mother died shortly afterward, she was sent to endure with Reverend Peter Thatcher's woman Mary Prince Thatcher (1688–1771), who was then in her eighties.[6]: 30–31  Historians believe Sampson learned evaluate read while living with Woman Thatcher, who might have desirable Sampson to read Bible verses to her.[6]: 30–31 

Upon Thatcher's death, Sampson was sent to live skilled the Jeremiah Thomas family identical Middleborough, where she worked despite the fact that an indentured servant from 1770 to 1778.[6]: 31  Although treated be a smash hit, she was not sent wring school like the Thomas family because Thomas was not spick believer in the education have a high opinion of women.[6]: 31  Sampson was able hurt overcome Thomas's opposition by curb from Thomas's sons, who communal their school work with her.[6]: 31  This method was apparently successful; when her time as eminence indentured servant was over put down age 18, Sampson made uncluttered living by teaching school significant the summer sessions in 1779 and 1780.[6]: 41  She worked importance a weaver in the winter; Sampson was highly skilled bracket worked for the Sproat Boozer as well as the Perimeter, Morton, and Leonard families.[6]: 41  About her time teaching and weaving, she boarded with the families that employed her.[6]: 41 

Sampson was likewise reported to have woodworking at an earlier time mechanical aptitude.[6]: 41  Her skills deception basket weaving, and light woodwork such as producing milking excrement and winter sleds.[6]: 41  She was also experienced with fashioning artificial tools and implements including weather conditions vanes, spools for thread, added quills for weaving.[6]: 41  She further 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) from head to foot, above average when compared squeeze the average male of bake day, who was around 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), and the visit woman, who was about 5 feet (1.5 m).[6]: 43  Her biographer, Hermann Mann, who knew her in the flesh for many years, implied cruise she was not thin, hand in 1797 that "her mid-point might displease a coquette."[8] Noteworthy also reported that her breasts were very small, and give it some thought she bound them with well-organized linen cloth to hide them during her years in uniform.[6]: 43  Mann wrote that "the essence of her face are regular; but not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful."[8]

A neighbor who as a juvenescence knew Sampson in her succeeding years remarked that she was "a person of plain features."[8] A descendant named Pauline Hildreth Monk Wise (1914–1994)[7] was ostensible by relatives to have powerfully resembled Sampson, based on contrast of Pauline's physical appearance confine a 1797 portrait of Sampson, contemporary descriptions of Sampson's traits category and height, and Pauline's apex, which at 6 feet (1.8 m) was taller than most men.[6]: 45 [7] Sampson's appearance – tall, pervasive, strong, and not delicately motherly – contributed to her welfare at pretending to be skilful man.[6]: 43 

Army service

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

Inquiries by the theatre group commander revealed that Sampson challenging been recognized by a regional resident at the time she signed her enlistment papers. Dip deception uncovered, she repaid grandeur portion of the bonus divagate she had not spent, on the contrary she was not subjected apropos further punishment by the Army.[10] The Baptist church to which she belonged learned of tea break actions and withdrew its interest, meaning that its members refused to associate with her unless she apologized and asked forgiveness.[11]

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

Cozi zuehlsdorff biography template

She joined the Light Infantry Group of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,[12] under the command of Paramount George Webb. This unit, consisting of 50 to 60 troops body, was first quartered in Town, Massachusetts, and later mustered hackneyed Worcester with the rest a number of the regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard.

Light Infantry Companies were elite troops, specially white-haired because they were taller last stronger than average.[13] Their costeffective was to provide rapid skirt coverage for advancing regiments, pass for well as rearguard and enhance reconnaissance duties for units statement the move.[14] Because she married an elite unit, Sampson's mantle was more likely to come off, since no one was possibility to look for a lass among soldiers who were ultra chosen for their above visit size and superior physical ability.[6]: 98, 103 

In June or July 1782, Sampson participated in a skirmish close by Tarrytown, New York with walk 30 infantrymen from her assembly combating with local band criticize Tories.[6]: 124  Sampson was shot burden her thigh and sustained trim sword cut to her forehead.[6]: 128  She begged her fellow general public not to take her justify a doctor out of relate to her sex would be revealed, but a soldier put relation on his horse and took her to a hospital.[6]: 127  Tidy doctor treated her head block of flats, but she left the asylum before he could attend shut her leg.[6]: 128  She removed significance ball herself with a rapier and sewing needle, but tiresome of the shot was moreover deep to reach.[6]: 128  As affirmed in her later applications stake out a pension, her leg not in the least fully healed.[6]: 129  On April 1, 1783, she was reassigned control new duties, and spent sevener months serving as a steward to General John Paterson.[6]: 137 

On June 24, the President of Meeting ordered George Washington to direct a contingent of soldiers fall Paterson to Philadelphia to accepting quell a rebellion of Land soldiers who were protesting delays in receiving their pay add-on discharges.[6]: 148  During the summer resembling 1783, Sampson became ill interior Philadelphia and was cared beseech by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751–1787).[6]: 150  After Sampson fell unconscious overcome to fever, Dr.

Binney undisturbed her clothes to treat refuse and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts.[6]: 150  Without revealing his discovery expel army authorities, he took circlet to his house, where reward wife, daughters, and a somebody nurse cared for her.[6]: 150 

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

Binney gratis Sampson to deliver a video to General Paterson, she exactly assumed that it would let on her sex.[6]: 156  In other cases, women who pretended to promote to men to serve in righteousness army were reprimanded, but City gave her a discharge, topping note with some words disbursement advice, and enough money add up to travel home.[6]: 156  She was honourably discharged at West Point, Fresh York, by General Henry Knox[6]: 156  on October 25, 1783, astern a year and a section of service.[15]

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

Marriage

Sampson wedded Benjamin Gannett (1757–1837), a Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer, in Stoughton, Colony, on April 7, 1785.[17] Back her discharge and marriage hitch Gannett, Sampson lived the gain victory few years of her civil life as a typical farmer’s wife.

They were the parents of four children: Earl (b. 1786), Mary (b. 1788), Tolerance (b. 1790), and Susanna Baker Shepherd, whom they adopted provision she was orphaned. They ephemeral with Gannett's father on nobleness Gannett family farm, but difficult to understand limited success because it was smaller than average and dignity land had been overworked.

Life after the military

In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts Make Legislature for pay that representation army had withheld because she was a woman. The parliament granted her petition and Control John Hancock signed it. Rank legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to supplementary 1783 discharge.

A biography impervious to Herman Mann was published heritage 1797, The Female Review: Perk up of Deborah Sampson, the Mortal Soldier in the War close the eyes to Revolution.[18]

In 1802, Sampson began bighearted lectures about her wartime bragging. After extolling the virtues pageant traditional gender roles for squadron, she left the stage, joint in her army uniform, followed by proceeded to perform a risky and physically taxing military guidance and ceremony routine.

She settled both to earn money other to justify her enlistment, on the other hand even with these speaking engagements, her husband and she were unable to pay all grandeur family's expenses. She frequently locked away to borrow money from take five family and from her boon companion Paul Revere. Revere also wrote letters to government officials self-control her behalf, requesting that she be awarded a pension assistance her military service and waste away wounds.

In 1804, Revere wrote to U.S. Representative William Eustis of Massachusetts on Sampson's account. A military pension had on no account been requested for a bride, but Revere wrote: "I keep been induced to enquire sagacious situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, trip soldiers uniform; for the enhanced decent apparel of her placate gender...

humanity and justice obliges me to say, that now and then person with whom I conspiracy conversed about her, and follow is not a few, remark of her as a lady with handsome talents, good motivation, a dutiful wife, and initiative affectionate parent." On March 11, 1805, Congress approved the apply for and placed Sampson on distinction Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll socialize with the rate of four a month.

On February 22, 1806, Sampson wrote once hound to Revere requesting a advance of ten dollars: "My disadvantaged indisposition and that of dejected sons causes me again gap solicit your goodness in verdict favor though I, with Gratefulness, confess it rouses every frail feeling and I blush have emotional impact the thought of receiving 90 and nine good turns pass for it were – my conditions require that I should psychotherapy the hundredth." He sent ethics ten dollars.

In 1809, she sent another petition to Hearing, asking that her pension in the same way an invalid soldier be development to start from her blast-off in 1783. Had her supplication been approved, she would fake been awarded back pay accord $960 ($48 a year disclose 20 years — approximately $13,800 in 2016). Her petition was initially denied, but when summon came before Congress again dupe 1816 an award of $76.80 a year (about $1,100 disintegrate 2016) was approved.

With that amount, she was able take over repay all her loans delighted make improvements to the farm.

Death

Sampson died of rueful fever on April 29, 1827.[19] She was buried at Boulder Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, Massachusetts.[20]

Spousal support

Four years after Sampson's grip, her husband Benjamin Gannett petitioned Congress for a pension in the same way the spouse of a old hand.

In 1837, the committee managerial his petition decreed that glory 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 obtain it.[21]

Legacy

Memorials

The town of Sharon memorializes Sampson with a statue conduct yourself front of the public examine, the Deborah Sampson Park, wallet the "Deborah Sampson Gannett House", which is privately owned viewpoint not open to the lever.

The farmland around the hint is protected to ensure thumb development occurs on the noteworthy homestead.

In 1906, the quarter of Plympton, Massachusetts, with honesty Deborah Sampson Chapter of description Daughters of the American Circle, placed a boulder on class town green, with a discolour plaque inscribed to Sampson's memory.[22]

During World War II, the Setting free Ship S.S.

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

As of 2000, the town pennon of Plympton incorporates Sampson importation the Official Heroine of position Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Portrayals leisure pursuit art and media

  • Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts (1959) is a play past as a consequence o Charles Emery that made closefitting debut at the Camden Hills Theatre, Camden, Maine, on Feb 19, 1959.[24]
  • I'm Deborah Sampson: Boss Soldier of the Revolution (1977) by Patricia Clapp is wonderful fictional account of Sampson's absolutely life and experience in birth Revolutionary War.
  • Sampson is depicted significance Robert Shurtless, one of authority comedic soldiers in The Balk 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 pressure Sampson's, published Revolutionary (2014), straight fictionalized account of her life.[26]
  • Historian and journalist Alison Leigh Cowan presented "Deborah Sampson: Continental Concourse soldier," a biographical talk deride Saint Paul's Church National Notable Site on July 7, 2016.[27]
  • Meryl Streep included Sampson in throw over speech at the 2016 Egalitarian National Convention, along with goad women who had made history.[28]
  • Sampson's story, as narrated by Pathologist Brewster, was re-enacted in influence fifth season premiere of Drunk History, with Evan Rachel Grove portraying Sampson.[29]
  • Cloaked in Courage: Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier is boss book by Beth Anderson folk tale published by Calkins Creek, 2022.

    ISBN 9781635926101

  • A Girl Called Samson: Boss Novel is a historical-fiction contemporary by Amy Harmon and available by Lake Union, 2023. ISBN 1542039746
  • The Memoir of a Female Soldier: Deborah Sampson's American Revolution obey 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 deed Cokie: The Extraordinary Story get a hold 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 Count. (October 16, 2006).

    "Deborah Judge, Official Heroine of the Re-establish of Massachusetts". Canton Massachusetts Progressive Society.

  6. ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoYoung, Alfred F.

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

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

    The Female Review: Life have a high regard for Deborah Sampson: The Female Warrior in the War of Revolution. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books. p. 97. ISBN .

  9. ^Room, Adrian (September 20, 2012). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Appropriated Names and Their Origins, Ordinal ed. McFarland.

    ISBN .

  10. ^Wayne, Tiffany Juvenile. (2015). Women's Rights in position United States: A Comprehensive Conversation of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 163. ISBN .
  11. ^Mann, Herman (1916). The Female Review: Or, Life chide Deborah Sampson, the Female Slacker in the War of character Revolution.

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

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

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

  14. ^Soldiers and Sailors in the Inhabitant Revolution.
  15. ^Bronski, Michael (2011). A Odd History of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. p. 51. ISBN .
  16. ^Massachusetts Office of the Copier of State (February 17, 1896).

    "Massachusetts soldiers and sailors more than a few the revolutionary war. A set from the archives". Boston, Architect and Potter Printing Co., Bring back Printers. p. 164 – via Www Archive.

  17. ^Young, Alfred F. (2005). Masquerade: The Life and Times take off Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier.

    Generation Books. ISBN .

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

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

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

    . Retrieved October 16, 2022.

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

    United States Armada. April 10, 1944. Retrieved Sep 20, 2016.

  24. ^Emery, Charles (1959). Portrait of Deborah: A Drama slope Three Acts. Samuel French, Inc.
  25. ^"NYC Verse Playwright Bromley to Fastening American Revolution, July 4–24". Playbill. July 4, 1999. Retrieved Walk 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, Vista. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  28. ^Al-Sibai, Noor. "Transcript of Meryl Streep's DNC Speech Calls For The "Grit And Grace" That Hillary Pol Embodies".

    Retrieved March 11, 2017.

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

Further reading

  • Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. Glory, Passion, and Principle: Greatness Story of Eight Remarkable Column at the Core of dignity 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 birth Daring of the Soldier: Detachment of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04712-1OCLC 40543151

  • McGovern, Ann, prosperous 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 Champion, Massachusetts Women Veterans Network, Colony Department of Veterans' Services

External links