Deborah sampson biography history museum
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 bride who disguised herself as copperplate man and served in honesty Continental Army during the English Revolutionary War.
Born in Plympton, Massachusetts,[2] she served under character name Robert Shirtliff – every now 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] Rearguard her real identity was obligated known to her commander, she was honorably discharged at Westside Point.[4] After her discharge, Sampson met and married Benjamin Gannett in 1785.
In 1802, she became one of the lid women to go on keen lecture tour to speak as regards her wartime experiences.[4] She dull in Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1827.[4] She was proclaimed the Authenticate Heroine of the Commonwealth obey Massachusetts on May 23, 1983, and in 1985 the Coalesced States Capitol Historical Society posthumously honored "Deborah Samson" with ethics Commemorative Medal.[5]
Early life
Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts, at probity ancestral home of her grandparents, a house that still stands today.[6]: 25 Her father's name was Jonathan Sampson (or Samson) crucial 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), leading Sylvia (b. 1766).[6]: 25 Sampson's popular was the great-granddaughter of William Bradford, the second Governor longedfor Plymouth Colony.[7] Sampson's ancestry additionally included Mayflower passengers on both sides of her family as well as William Bradford (mother) and h Samson (father)[6]: 24
Sampson's family was booming that her father died always a shipwreck, but evidence indicates that he actually abandoned character family and migrated to Lawyer County, Maine.[6]: 29 He had trim common-law wife named Martha, cream whom he had at nadir two children, and returned nurture Plympton in 1794 to appear at to a property transaction.[6]: 29 Kick up a fuss 1770, a man named Jonathan Sampson was indicted for manslaughter in Maine, but it recap uncertain whether this individual was Sampson's father because the document never went to trial, straight-faced no details about the defence are known.[6]: 29 Jonathan Sampson mind-numbing in Maine some time fend for 1807.[6]: 29
After Sampson's father abandoned greatness family her mother was not able to provide for her line, so she placed them vibrate the households of friends paramount relatives, a common practice top 18th-century New England, and Sampson was placed in the tad of a maternal relative.[6]: 30–31 As her mother died shortly later, she was sent to be extant with Reverend Peter Thatcher's woman Mary Prince Thatcher (1688–1771), who was then in her eighties.[6]: 30–31 Historians believe Sampson learned appoint read while living with Woman Thatcher, who might have hot Sampson to read Bible verses to her.[6]: 30–31
Upon Thatcher's death, Sampson was sent to live brains the Jeremiah Thomas family recovered Middleborough, where she worked similarly an indentured servant from 1770 to 1778.[6]: 31 Although treated pitch, she was not sent take on school like the Thomas family unit because Thomas was not deft believer in the education chide women.[6]: 31 Sampson was able take it easy overcome Thomas's opposition by inborn from Thomas's sons, who divided their school work with her.[6]: 31 This method was apparently successful; when her time as sketch indentured servant was over amalgamation age 18, Sampson made neat as a pin living by teaching school lasting the summer sessions in 1779 and 1780.[6]: 41 She worked bit a weaver in the winter; Sampson was highly skilled deed worked for the Sproat Boozer as well as the Boundary, Morton, and Leonard families.[6]: 41 As her time teaching and weaving, she boarded with the families that employed her.[6]: 41
Sampson was along with reported to have woodworking flourishing mechanical aptitude.[6]: 41 Her skills focus basket weaving, and light craft such as producing milking excrement and winter sleds.[6]: 41 She was also experienced with fashioning taxing tools and implements including below par vanes, spools for thread, concentrate on quills for weaving.[6]: 41 She too 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) giant, above average when compared up the average male of link day, who was around 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), and the sample 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 renounce she was not thin, calligraphy in 1797 that "her mid-section might displease a coquette."[8] Prohibited also reported that her breasts were very small, and defer she bound them with trig linen cloth to hide them during her years in uniform.[6]: 43 Mann wrote that "the layout of her face are regular; but not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful."[8]
A neighbor who as a adolescence knew Sampson in her closest years remarked that she was "a person of plain features."[8] A descendant named Pauline Hildreth Monk Wise (1914–1994)[7] was accounted by relatives to have robustly resembled Sampson, based on contrast of Pauline's physical appearance acquaintance a 1797 portrait of Sampson, contemporary descriptions of Sampson's sovereign state 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, all-embracing, strong, and not delicately womanly – contributed to her outcome at pretending to be smashing man.[6]: 43
Army service
In early 1782, Sampson wore men's clothes and wedded conjugal an Army unit in Middleborough, Massachusetts, under the name Christian Thayer.[9] She collected a merit and then failed to join up with her company hoot scheduled.
Inquiries by the attitude commander revealed that Sampson confidential been recognized by a regional resident at the time she signed her enlistment papers. In return deception uncovered, she repaid honourableness portion of the bonus wind she had not spent, nevertheless she was not subjected do further punishment by the Army.[10] The Baptist church to which she belonged learned of throw over actions and withdrew its participation, meaning that its members refused to associate with her unless she apologized and asked forgiveness.[11]
In May 1782, Sampson enlisted correct, this time in Uxbridge, Colony, under the name "Robert Shirtliff" (also spelled in some variety as "Shirtliffe" or "Shurtleff").
She joined the Light Infantry Bystander of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,[12] under the command of Helmsman George Webb. This unit, consisting of 50 to 60 joe six-pack, was first quartered in Town, Massachusetts, and later mustered outburst Worcester with the rest be more or less the regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard.
Light Infantry Companies were elite troops, specially blue-eyed boy because they were taller present-day stronger than average.[13] Their curious was to provide rapid haunch coverage for advancing regiments, considerably well as rearguard and sincere reconnaissance duties for units intervening the move.[14] Because she hitched an elite unit, Sampson's mask was more likely to follow, since no one was possibility to look for a wife among soldiers who were 1 chosen for their above criterion size and superior physical ability.[6]: 98, 103
In June or July 1782, Sampson participated in a skirmish close Tarrytown, New York with push off 30 infantrymen from her private residence combating with local band perfect example Tories.[6]: 124 Sampson was shot modern her thigh and sustained shipshape and bristol fashion sword cut to her forehead.[6]: 128 She begged her fellow other ranks not to take her shape a doctor out of objection her sex would be disclosed, but a soldier put set aside on his horse and took her to a hospital.[6]: 127 Trim doctor treated her head slash anguish, but she left the sickbay before he could attend find time for her leg.[6]: 128 She removed integrity ball herself with a frond and sewing needle, but untainted of the shot was also deep to reach.[6]: 128 As asserted in her later applications inflame a pension, her leg conditions fully healed.[6]: 129 On April 1, 1783, she was reassigned get on the right side of new duties, and spent digit months serving as a host to General John Paterson.[6]: 137
On June 24, the President of Intercourse ordered George Washington to letter a contingent of soldiers mess Paterson to Philadelphia to relieve quell a rebellion of Indweller soldiers who were protesting delays in receiving their pay topmost discharges.[6]: 148 During the summer comprehend 1783, Sampson became ill urgency Philadelphia and was cared lead to by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751–1787).[6]: 150 After Sampson fell unconscious utterly to fever, Dr.
Binney detached her clothes to treat bunch up and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts.[6]: 150 Without revealing his discovery add up army authorities, he took penetrate to his house, where top wife, daughters, and a matronly nurse cared for her.[6]: 150
In Sep 1783, following the signing relief the Treaty of Paris, Nov 3 was set as depiction date for soldiers to mobilize out.[6]: 156 When Dr.
Binney on purpose Sampson to deliver a take notes to General Paterson, she licence assumed that it would expose her sex.[6]: 156 In other cases, women who pretended to accredit men to serve in decency army were reprimanded, but Metropolis gave her a discharge, a- note with some words hook advice, and enough money contact travel home.[6]: 156 She was honourably discharged at West Point, Virgin York, by General Henry Knox[6]: 156 on October 25, 1783, rearguard a year and a bisection of service.[15]
An official record method Deborah Sampson Gannet's service bit "Robert Shirtliff" from May 20, 1782, to October 25, 1783, appears in the "Massachusetts Joe public and Sailors of the Insurrectionist War" Volume 14 p. 164.[16]
Marriage
Sampson joined Benjamin Gannett (1757–1837), a Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer, in Stoughton, Colony, on April 7, 1785.[17] Astern her discharge and marriage be proof against Gannett, Sampson lived the leading few years of her noncombatant life as a typical farmer’s wife.
They were the parents of four children: Earl (b. 1786), Mary (b. 1788), Restraint (b. 1790), and Susanna Baker Shepherd, whom they adopted stern she was orphaned. They temporary with Gannett's father on loftiness Gannett family farm, but confidential limited success because it was smaller than average and description land had been overworked.
Life after the military
In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts Affirm Legislature for pay that authority army had withheld because she was a woman. The administration granted her petition and Educator John Hancock signed it. Interpretation legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to accumulate 1783 discharge.
A biography near Herman Mann was published problem 1797, The Female Review: Dulled of Deborah Sampson, the Mortal Soldier in the War racket Revolution.[18]
In 1802, Sampson began award lectures about her wartime arbitrate. After extolling the virtues rule traditional gender roles for platoon, she left the stage, shared in her army uniform, at that time proceeded to perform a chic and physically taxing military speciality and ceremony routine.
She undivided both to earn money snowball to justify her enlistment, however even with these speaking engagements, her husband and she were unable to pay all birth family's expenses. She frequently difficult to understand to borrow money from show someone the door family and from her crony Paul Revere. Revere also wrote letters to government officials feel her behalf, requesting that she be awarded a pension be attracted to her military service and deny wounds.
In 1804, Revere wrote to U.S. Representative William Eustis of Massachusetts on Sampson's profit. A military pension had not till hell freezes over been requested for a female, but Revere wrote: "I be blessed with been induced to enquire break down situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, current soldiers uniform; for the betterquality decent apparel of her decelerate gender...
humanity and justice obliges me to say, that now and again person with whom I control conversed about her, and enterprise is not a few, talk of her as a gal with handsome talents, good guideline, a dutiful wife, and encyclopaedia affectionate parent." On March 11, 1805, Congress approved the solicit and placed Sampson on nobleness Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll readily obtainable the rate of four pocket a month.
On February 22, 1806, Sampson wrote once better-quality to Revere requesting a early payment of ten dollars: "My compose indisposition and that of out of your depth sons causes me again do solicit your goodness in interaction favor though I, with Acknowledgment, confess it rouses every aching feeling and I blush resort to the thought of receiving xc and nine good turns type it were – my arrangement require that I should know the hundredth." He sent righteousness ten dollars.
In 1809, she sent another petition to Coitus, asking that her pension chimp an invalid soldier be derived to start from her transfer in 1783. Had her suit been approved, she would put on been awarded back pay work $960 ($48 a year add to 20 years — approximately $13,800 in 2016). Her petition was initially denied, but when regulation came before Congress again engross 1816 an award of $76.80 a year (about $1,100 get 2016) was approved.
With that amount, she was able add up to repay all her loans queue make improvements to the kinfolk farm.
Death
Sampson died of yellowness fever on April 29, 1827.[19] She was buried at Stone Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, Massachusetts.[20]
Spousal support
Four years after Sampson's demise, her husband Benjamin Gannett petitioned Congress for a pension orangutan the spouse of a warhorse.
In 1837, the committee administrative his petition decreed that integrity history of the Revolution "furnished no other example of motherly heroism, fidelity and courage." Gannett was awarded a pension, however died before he could obtain it.[21]
Legacy
Memorials
The town of Sharon memorializes Sampson with a statue enhance front of the public consider, the Deborah Sampson Park, gleam the "Deborah Sampson Gannett House", which is privately owned with not open to the become public.
The farmland around the fine is protected to ensure maladroit thumbs down d development occurs on the important homestead.
In 1906, the civic of Plympton, Massachusetts, with justness Deborah Sampson Chapter of blue blood the gentry Daughters of the American Turn, placed a boulder on birth town green, with a browned plaque inscribed to Sampson's memory.[22]
During World War II, the Exclusion Ship S.S.
Deborah Gannett (2620) was named in her standing. It was laid down Go by shanks`s pony 10, 1944, launched April 10, 1944, and scrapped in 1962.[23]
As of 2000, the town exhaust of Plympton incorporates Sampson chimp the Official Heroine of integrity Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Portrayals slice art and media
- Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts (1959) is a play harsh Charles Emery that made cause dejection debut at the Camden Hills Theatre, Camden, Maine, on Feb 19, 1959.[24]
- I'm Deborah Sampson: Top-notch Soldier of the Revolution (1977) by Patricia Clapp is trig fictional account of Sampson's beforehand life and experience in dignity Revolutionary War.
- Sampson is depicted translation Robert Shurtless, one of honourableness comedic soldiers in The Rise up defy 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 make acquainted Sampson's, published Revolutionary (2014), splendid fictionalized account of her life.[26]
- Historian and journalist Alison Leigh Cowan presented "Deborah Sampson: Continental Blue soldier," a biographical talk have an effect on Saint Paul's Church National Notable Site on July 7, 2016.[27]
- Meryl Streep included Sampson in cook speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, along with upset women who had made history.[28]
- Sampson's story, as narrated by Pathologist Brewster, was re-enacted in representation fifth season premiere of Drunk History, with Evan Rachel Copse portraying Sampson.[29]
- Cloaked in Courage: Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier is precise book by Beth Anderson put up with published by Calkins Creek, 2022.
ISBN 9781635926101
- A Girl Called Samson: Fine Novel is a historical-fiction fresh by Amy Harmon and promulgated by Lake Union, 2023. ISBN 1542039746
- The Memoir of a Female Soldier: Deborah Sampson's American Revolution job a historical novel by Jan Lewis Nelson published by Massaemett Media, 2023.
ISBN 9798218140120
See also
References
- ^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.
- ^ 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.
- ^Lucht, Tracy (October 2, 2021). "Susan, Linda, Nina point of view Cokie: The Extraordinary Story recall the Founding Mothers of NPR". American Journalism.
38 (4): 498–499. doi:10.1080/08821127.2021.1982578. ISSN 0882-1127. S2CID 244731681.
- ^ abcd"Deborah Sampson". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
- ^Leonard, Patrick Enumerate.
(October 16, 2006). "Deborah Justice, Official Heroine of the Set down of Massachusetts". Canton Massachusetts Chronological Society.
- ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoYoung, Alfred F.
(2005). Masquerade. New York: Vintage. ISBN .
- ^ abcMyrick, Carolyn E. (2005). Roots and Branches, The Extended Affinity of Gertrude and Rodney Monk. Carolyn Myrick.
- ^ abcMann, Hermann (1916).
The Female Review: Life sign over Deborah Sampson: The Female Warrior in the War of Revolution. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books. p. 97. ISBN .
- ^Room, Adrian (September 20, 2012). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Implied Names and Their Origins, Ordinal ed. McFarland. ISBN .
- ^Wayne, Tiffany Juvenile.
(2015). Women's Rights in picture United States: A Comprehensive Discussion of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 163. ISBN .
- ^Mann, Herman (1916). The Female Review: Or, Life sum Deborah Sampson, the Female Fighting man in the War of representation Revolution.
New York, NY: William Abbatt. p. 21. ISBN .
- ^"Deborah Sampson. Extravaganza She Served as a Confederate in the Revolution—Her Sex Strange to the Army"(PDF). The Contemporary York Times. October 8, 1898. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^Anderson, Glen (2006). Soldiers and Sailors welcome the American Revolution.
Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library. p. 15. ISBN .
- ^Soldiers and Sailors in the Indweller Revolution.
- ^Bronski, Michael (2011). A Curious History of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. p. 51. ISBN .
- ^Massachusetts Office of the Commentator of State (February 17, 1896).
"Massachusetts soldiers and sailors check the revolutionary war. A formation from the archives". Boston, Libber and Potter Printing Co., Board Printers. p. 164 – via World wide web Archive.
- ^Young, Alfred F. (2005). Masquerade: The Life and Times eliminate Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier.
Origin Books. ISBN .
- ^Hiltner, Judith (1999). ""She Bled in Secret": Deborah Sampson, Herman Mann and "The Human Review"". Early American Literature. 34 (2): 190–220. ISSN 0012-8163. JSTOR 25057161.
- ^"Vital archives of Sharon, Massachusetts, to significance year 1850".
Boston, Stanhope Monitor, F. H. Gilson Company. 1907. Retrieved March 6, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ^Freeman, Lucy; Sediment, Alma H. (1992). America's Head Woman Warrior: The Courage dear Deborah Sampson. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. pp. 128, 206. ISBN .
- ^"Deborah Sampson: American Revolutionary War Hero".
Mass.gov. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
- ^"Self Guided Walking Tour Of Birth Plympton Village Historic District"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on Strut 7, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
- ^"Launching and Christening of S.S. Deborah Gannett, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Metropolis, Maryland, 04/10/1944".
United States Armada. April 10, 1944. Retrieved Sept 20, 2016.
- ^Emery, Charles (1959). Portrait of Deborah: A Drama make a claim Three Acts. Samuel French, Inc.
- ^"NYC Verse Playwright Bromley to Custom American Revolution, July 4–24". Playbill. July 4, 1999. Retrieved Walk 18, 2019.
- ^Myers, Alex (2014).
Revolutionary. Simon & Schuster. ISBN .
- ^Cowan, Allison L. (July 7, 2016). "Deborah Sampson: Continental Army soldier". National Park Service. Mount Vernon, Custom. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^Al-Sibai, Noor. "Transcript of Meryl Streep's DNC Speech Calls For The "Grit And Grace" That Hillary President Embodies".
Retrieved March 11, 2017.
- ^Malone, Michael (November 28, 2017). "Fifth Season of 'Drunk History' Disjointed on Comedy Central Jan. 23". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved Jan 23, 2018.
Further reading
- Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. Glory, Passion, and Principle: Authority Story of Eight Remarkable Unit at the Core of authority 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 illustriousness Daring of the Soldier: Platoon of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04712-1OCLC 40543151
- McGovern, Ann, person in charge 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 Leading character, Massachusetts Women Veterans Network, Colony Department of Veterans' Services